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/ 


[WITHOUT A MASTER.] 

—™- Ml 

A PLAIN GUIDE 


Landscape Fainting 

ANO 

Sketching from Nature 


With Helpful Hints for Viewing Nature and Art. 




1IY 

J- 


Y 


1 1 


©ttnlialr School of iglUater ®olor. 


Art Superintendent, University of Southern California. 


-'rr~~ lag 


PRICE 50 CEETTS. 



PUBLISHED BY 

FOWUKR COUWKUL, 

L,os Angeles, Cf» 1 • 


O' 




























TO 


DEWICK HUNT, 

of Garston, Lancashire, England, 


(the best of boys,) 

This handbook is inscribed by his loving 

Uncle. 

Eos Angeles, Cal., 

May, iSgi. 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, 

By J. Ivey, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 




PREFACE. 


The author of this ‘ Guide ’ to a most fascinating art 
justifies its publication on the modest ground of its sim¬ 
plicity. It is compiled with the endeavour to impart to 
the amateur the fundamental knowledge which is neces¬ 
sary to enable him to become a master, and to help all 
lovers of nature to discern her subtlest beauties and her 
most secret revelations, in order that they may be quali¬ 
fied to estimate the excellencies and faults of landscape 
pictures. 

The limits and scope of this handbook preclude the 
possibility of including instruction in drawing, and its 
omission must not be held to imply that we do not ap¬ 
preciate the importance of drawing and design. 

Experience has taught us, however, that the study and 
practice of colour frequently serve to awaken an interest 
in Art, which the drier study of drawing would not, and 
they certainly help a student to select that branch or form 
of Art for which he is best fitted. Moreover, the charm 
of colour encourages the beginner to more frequent prac¬ 
tice of drawing from nature than he would otherwise 
do, while concurrently with the practice he will use one 
of the many admirable handbooks on Perspective, to 
acquaint himself with its rules, and it must be admitted 
that it is only by practice that the facility of drawing 
can be acquired. 

Since water colour has asserted itself in the hands of 



4 


preface. 


many of the world’s great modern masters as the best 
medium of interpreting the tenderest and most charming 
passages of atmospheric effects, and, moreover, has been 
proved to be absolutely permanent in character, there is 
naturally a rapidly increasing interest exhibited toward 
it on the part of all lovers of pictures and of wealthy 
collectors, and the author would humbly hope that this 
little handbook may contribute, in some measure, to the 
development in America of an art which is particularly 
adapted to transcribe and repeat the atmospheric glories 
of the ‘ Golden West.’ J. I. 

University, 

Los Angeees, Caeifornia, U. S. A., 

May , i8gi. 


CONTENTS. 


PART i. 

Chapter I. 

PAGE 

A few General Remarks, with Table of Harmony 

of Colours. 9 

Chapter II. 

Explanation of Some Terms Used in Painting. 11 

Chapter III. 

List of Materials, with Uses of the Various Colours 

Described. 19 

Chapter IV. 

On Mixing Colours, with List, of Useful Combina¬ 
tions . 27 

Chapter V. 

On Broad Washes for Skies, Sea, Flat Distances, etc. 39 

Chapter VI. 

On Various Means and Methods, ‘Taking out,’ 
‘Scumbling,’ ‘Glazing,’ ‘Sponging,’ ‘Scraping,’ 

‘Painting Over,’etc. . 44 

Chapter VII. 

On Sketching From Nature. 48 

PART II. 

Helpful Hints for Viewing Nature and Art. 59 


















t 


PART I. 


A 

Plain Guide to Landscape Painting 

AND 

Sketching From Nature. 


i 



CHAPTER I. 


A FEW GENERAL REMARKS, WITH TABLE OF HARMONY 

OF COLOURS. 

In Landscape Painting the artist studies the reality of 
the model in each of the elements that compose it; but 
he idealises the real by making it express some senti¬ 
ment of the human soul. The proof that faithfulness of 
imitation would not alone suffice is, that if the instru¬ 
ment of the photographer could seize colors as it does 
forms, it would give us a certain view of a certain coun¬ 
try, but it would not produce the work of art, which is 
a landscape painting. In order to achieve this, the 
painter, master of reality, enlightens it with his eyes, 
transfigures it according to his heart, and makes it utter, 
so to speak, what is not in it—sentiment and thought. 


colours. 

In reality there are only three original or primary 
colours : yellow , red and blue; and three composite or 
binary colours : orange , green and violet. White light 
containing the three primary colours, each of which 
serves as the ‘complement’ of the two others, in order to 
form the ‘equivalent’ of white light. Each has there¬ 
fore been called complementary in respect to the binary 
colour corresponding to it. Thus, blue is the comple¬ 
mentary of orange , because orange is composed of yellow 
and red, and blue would make white light. For the 
same reason, yellow is the complementary of violet , and 
red the complementary of gi r een. In return, each of 
these mixed colours is the complementary of that pri¬ 
mary colour which does not enter into its composition. 
Therefore orange is the complementary of blue. 


2 


IO 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


A remarkable property of colours, which it is very 
important to know, and which should always be remem¬ 
bered in using them in furniture or dress, as well as in 
painting, is that which regulates the well-known law of 
the ‘simultaneous contrast of colours.’ It may be ex¬ 
pressed thus: Complementary colours are mutually height¬ 
ened when placed in juxtapositio 7 i. 

Red, for example, put by the side of green, appears 
still redder; orange deepens blue; violet brightens 
yellow, etc. 

Another law, not less curious, is this,—an especially 
important one in painting : Every colour lightly reflects 
its comple?ne?itary on the space surrounding itself. 

For example, a red circle is surrounded with a light 
green aureola ; an orange circle with a blue, etc. This 
was observed by Veronese and Rubens long before the 
science of to-day had discovered the law—when they 
carefully covered with a violet tint the shadows of their 
yellows. 


TABLE OF HARMONY OF COLOURS. 

A useful table of reference in painting landscape and 
draperies, and for all decorative purposes. 

Scarlet with blue or green. 

Gold or yellow with blue or violet. 

Violet with light green or yellow. 

Blue with yellow or red. 

Carmine with green or orange. 

Brown with blue or red. 

Neutral tint with red or yellow. 

Rose with light blue or yellow. 

Orange with violet or blue. 

Blue grey with buff or pink. 

Olive green with red or orange. 

Flesh with blue or dark green. 

Dark green with crimson or orange. 

Fight green with rose or violet. 


CHAPTER II. 


AN EXPLANATION OF SOME TERMS USED IN PAINTING. 

Aerial Perspective .—See PERSPECTIVE. 

Antique .—This term is applied to the paintings and 
sculptures which were made at that period when the 
arts were in their greatest perfection among the ancient 
Greeks and Romans. But it is generally used for 
statues, basso-relievos, medals, intaglios, or engraved 
stones. It has been doubted whether the finest works 
of antiquity have come down to us, but the principal of 
those which have been the guide of the most distin¬ 
guished artists are the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, 
the Antinous, the Torso, the Gladiator, the Venus of 
Medicis, the Venus of Milo. The Elgin Marbles in the 
British Museum form a treasury of knowledge of the 
antique school. A profound study of the antique was 
the source from which the greatest artists of modern 
times, as Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, drew the perfec¬ 
tion which has immortalised their names. 

Background .—This term denotes the field or space 
round the groups in historical pictures, or that which is 
placed to set off a single figure ; and it is likewise ap¬ 
plied to the places and buildings in the distances of 
landscapes. The invention of backgrounds is considered 
one of the most difficult as well as the most important 
parts of paintings. 

Beauty , Ideal .—This term is made use of to express 
that degree of perfection in form which does not actually 
exist in nature, but only in the creative fancy of the 
artist. ‘It is this intellectual dignity,’ says Reynolds, 

‘ that ennobles the painter’s art; that lays a line between 
him and the mere mechanic; and produces those great 
effects in an instant, which eloquence and poetry are 
scarcely able to attain.’ 


12 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


Breadth. —This term, as applied to a picture, denotes 
grandeur of expression or distribution, as opposed to 
contraction and meanness. Breadth is usually indicative 
of a master, as the want of it almost always accompanies 
the performance of an indifferent artist. When the 
lights in a picture are so arranged that they seem to be 
in masses , and the darks are massed to support them, so 
that the attention of the spectator is powerfully arrested, 
we have what is called breadth of effect or breadth of light 
and shade. Breadth conveys the idea of greatness. 
Correggio is perhaps the master in whose works breadth 
appears pre-eminently conspicuous. 

Carnations are the flesh-tints in a picture. 

Cartoon (from the Italian car tone, pasteboard.) Hence 
the word came to be applied to the drawings or coloured 
designs on paper, intended to be transferred to the walls 
in fresco painting, or wrought in tapestry. The most 
famous cartoons in the world are the celebrated cartoons 
of Raffaelle , designs for tapestry executed for Pope Leo 
X., which were for many years admired at Hampton 
Court Palace, and are now in the South Kensington 
Museum. 

Chalky is that cold or unpleasant effect which arises 
from an injudicious combination of colours that do not 
agree well together. Thus, white mixed with vermilion, 
without being tempered with the ochres or burnt sienna, 
will appear crude and chalky. 

Chia?o-Oscuro, (Italian) light and shade. This term 
refers to the general distribution of lights and shadows 
in a picture, and their just degradation as they recede 
from the focus of light. ‘It comprehends,’ says Pro¬ 
fessor Phillips, in his Lectures, ‘not only light and shade, 
without which the form of no objects can be perfectly 
represented, but also all arrangements of light and dark 
colours in every degree ; in short, in accordance with 
the compound word composing its name, which we have 
adopted from the Italian, the light and dark of a picture.’ 
Chiaro-oscuro particularly refers to the great masses of 


SOME TERMS USED IN PAINTING. 


13 


lights and shadows in a painting, when the objects are 
so disposed by artful management, that their lights are 
together on one side, and their darks on the other. The 
best examples among the Italians are to be found in the 
works of Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgione ; 
among the Dutch, in those of Rembrandt, Adrian Ostade 
and De Hooge. A composition, however perfect in other 
respects, becomes a picture only by means of the chiaro- 
oscuro, which gives faithfulness to the representations, 
and therefore is of the highest importance to the painter ; 
at the same time, it is one of the most difficult branches 
of the artist’s study, because no precise rules can be 
given for its execution. The drawing of a picture may 
be correct, the colouring may be brilliant and true, and 
yet the whole picture remain dry and hard ; as we find 
it is the case in the works of painters who preceded 
Raffaelle and Leonardo da Vinci; and it was one of the 
great merits of those sublime geniuses, that they left 
their masters far behind them in chiaro-oscuro, though 
since their time many great artists have surpassed them 
in this respect. 

Colourist is a painter whose peculiar excellence is his 
colouring, but not therefore his only excellence. Titian"., 
Veronese, Rubens, are considered the best of colourists.. 

Compositio?i is the arrangement of objects and the dis¬ 
position of the parts so as to form an harmonious union 
of the whole ; hence anything extraneous, that disturbs 
the connection and diverts the mind from the general 
subject, is a vice. Composition, which is the principal 
part of the invention of a painter, is by far the greatest 
difficulty he has to encounter. The compositions of 
Raffaelle are said to be grand , those of Veronese rich , 
those of Poussin classical , those of Teniers natural. 

Demi- Tints .—This term implies the various gradations 
of which a colour is capable. 

Distemper is a preparation of colours without oil, only 
mixed with size, white of egg, or any such proper glu¬ 
tinous or unctous substance. All ancient paintings were 


14 a guide: to landscape painting. 

executed in this manner before the year 1460, when oil 
painting was first discovered. The Cartoons of Raffaelle 
were painted in distemper. 

Drawings .—There are several kinds of drawings ; in a 
general sense, the term is applied to any study or design 
made with black-lead pencils. In the English school, 
frequent use is made of the designation ‘ water-color 
drawings.’ 

Dryness is a term by which artists express the common 
defects of the early painters in oil, who had but little 
knowledge of the flowing contours which so elegantly 
show the delicate forms of the limbs and the insertion of 
the muscles ; the flesh in their colouring appearing hard 
and stiff, instead of expressing softness and pliancy. 

Effect .—By effect in painting is understood the energy 
and beauty of the optical results of the combinations, 
accidental or arising from calculations w r ell understood, 
either of the lines, of the tones, bright or dark, or again 
of the colours of the tints. But it is especially to the 
combinations of the chiaro-oscuro that the effect owes 
its energy, its suavity and its charm ; and what proves 
it is the appearance of engravings which offer colour 
without much effect; but it is optically subordinate to 
that which is obtained b}^ the bright and dark, semi- 
bright and semi-dark masses, and we thus distinguish 
the effect of Rubens and the colouring of Titian. The 
pictures of Poussin and Raffaelle have but little effect; 
those of Vandyke, Velasquez, Gerard, Reynolds and 
Prud’hon have a great deal of effect. 

Expression principally consists in representing the 
human body and all its parts in the action suitable to it ; 
in exhibiting in the face the several passions proper to 
the figures, and marking the motions they impress on 
the other parts. Frequently the term ‘ expression ’ is 
confounded with that of passion ; but the former implies 
a representation of an object agreeably to its nature and 
character, and the use or office it is intended to have in 
the work ; while passion in painting denotes a motion of 


SOME TERMS USED IN PAINTING. 


15 


the body, accompanied with certain airs of the face, 
which mark an agitation of soul. So that every passion 
is an expression, but not every expression a passion. 

Foreshortening is the art of representing figures and 
objects as they appear to the eye, viewed in positions 
varying from the perpendicular. This art is one of the 
most difficult in painting, and though absurdly claimed 
as a modern invention, was well known to the ancients. 
Pliny speaks particularly of its having been practiced 
by Parrhasius and Pausias, two Greek painters ; besides, 
it is impossible to execute any work of excellence with¬ 
out its employment. In painting domes and ceilings, 
foreshortening is particularly important. The meaning 
of the term is exemplified in the celebrated ‘Ascension ’ 
in the Pieta di Tarchini, at Naples, by Luca Giordano, 
in which the body of Christ is so much foreshortened 
that the toes seem to touch the knees, and the knees the 
chin. (Will be known to many readers by engravings.) 

Harmony is that congenial, accordant and pleasant 
effect in a picture, resulting from an intelligent distribu¬ 
tion of light and shade, a judicious arrangement of 
colours, and a consistency and propriety in composition. v 

Horizo 7 ital Line , in perspective, is a line that marks 
the horizon, or the place of the supposed horizon, and 
which is always on a level with the eye. 

Linear Perspective .— See Perspective. 

Loading is a term applied to laying colours in thick 
masses on the lights, so as to make them project from 
the surface, with a view to make them strongly illumin¬ 
ated by the light that falls on the picture, and thus 
mechanically to aid in producing roundness and relief, 
or to give a sparkling effect to polished or glittering 
objects. 

Local Colours are such as faithfully imitate those of a 
particular object or such as are natural and proper for 
each particular object in a picture. Colour is also dis¬ 
tinguished by the term local, because the place it fills 
requires that particular colour, in order to give a greater 
character of truth to the several tints with which it is 
contrasted. 


16 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

Manner is that habit which painters acquire, not only 
in the management of the pencil, but also in the princi¬ 
pal parts of painting, as invention, design, colouring. 
It is by the manner in painting that connoisseurs decide 
to what school it belongs, and by what particular master 
of that school it was executed. Some masters have had 
a variety in their manners at different periods of life, 
others have so constantly adhered to one only, that those 
who have seen even a few of their pictures will immedi¬ 
ately know and judge of them, without the risk of mis¬ 
take. The variety observable among artists arises from 
the manners of the different schools in which they have 
received their instruction, or of the artists under whom 
they have studied ; for young painters, feeling a parti¬ 
ality for those masters they have imitated, prefer what 
they have long accustomed themselves to admire. Yet 
there are instances among the great artists, of painters 
who have divested themselves of that early partiality so 
effectually as to fix on a manner far better adapted to 
their particular genius, and by this means have arrived 
at a greater excellence. Thus Raffaelle proceeded, and 
acquired a much more elevated manner after he had 
quitted the school of Perugino and seen the works of 
Leonardo da Vinci. 

Ma?i 7 ierism is an affected style, contracted by an imita¬ 
tion of the peculiarities of some particular master, 
instead of a general contemplation of nature. 

Pe? spective .—The art of representing the appearance 
of objects as seen from a certain point of view. It is 
divided into geometrical or linear perspective and the 
perspective of colour or aerial perspective. Both are 
subjected to perfectly scientific rules, and without the 
observance of those rules no picture can have truth or 
life. Linear perspective describes or represents the posi¬ 
tion, form and magnitude of objects, and their diminu¬ 
tion in proportion to their distance from the eye. Aerial 
perspective is the degradation of the tones of colours, 
which throws off the distances of grounds and objects. 


SOME TERMS USED IN PAINTING. 


1 7 


and which judicious artists practice by diffusing a kind 
of thin vapour over them, that deceives the eye agree¬ 
ably. It shows the diminution of the colours of objects 
in proportion as they recede from the eye by the inter¬ 
position of the atmosphere between the eye and the 
objects. The proportion of this degradation is regulated 
by the purity of the atmosphere. Hence, in a fog, it 
will be greater at the distance of a few feet, than in a 
clear sky at as many miles. Distant objects in a clear 
southern air appear to an eye accustomed to a thick 
northern atmosphere much nearer than they really are. 
Thus, as the air changes, the aerial perspective must 
change. Morning, noon, evening, moonshine, winter, 
summer, the sea, etc., all have their different aerial- 
perspective. In aerial perspective, the weakening of the 
tints corresponds to the foreshortening of the receding 
lines in linear perspective. In the illuminated parts of 
objects, the tints are represented more broken and fluc¬ 
tuating and the shaded parts are often aided by reflection. 
By aerial perspective, two results are obtained: i. Each 
object in a picture receives that degree of colour and 
light which belongs to its distance from the eye. 2. The 
various local tones are made to unite in one chief tone, 
which last is nothing else than the common colour of the 
atmosphere and the light which penetrates it. The 
charm and harmony of a picture, particularly of a land¬ 
scape, depend greatly on a proper application of the 
laws of perspective. 

Reflected Lights are the borrowed lights, or lights 
coming from one object to another ; and those reflected 
lights always partake of the tint of the object from 
which the light is reflected. Not only the atmosphere, 
but every object in nature reflects light. 

Relief or Relievo denotes those objects which are repre¬ 
sented on a plane surface, and yet appear to project from 
it, by the judicious application of the principles of chiaro- 
oscuro. 

Still-Life .—The representations of inanimate objects,. 


18 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

as dead game, vegetables, fruits and flowers, musical 
and sporting instruments, weapons, tankards, glasses, 
etc., or of fishes and domestic animals of every descrip¬ 
tion, when forming compositions by themselves, are 
called still-life . When living persons are principals in 
the compositions, the introduction of such things are 
called accessories. 

Style. —Sir Joshua Reynolds says that ‘ in painting, 
style is the same as in writing ; a power over materials, 
whether words or colours, by wdiich conceptions or sen¬ 
timents are conveyed.’ Styles vary in painting as in 
writing : some are grand, others plain ; some florid and 
others simple. The word very often signifies only the 
manner peculiar to a school or master, in design, com¬ 
position, colouring, expression and execution. 

Tone is the harmony of colouring in a painting, or the 
happy effect produced by the proper degradation of light 
and shade, so as to cause all harshness and crudeness to 
disappear. 

Vanishing Points. —A term of perspective. In order to 
understand its meaning, it is necessary to bear in mind 
the following facts : (i) The horizo 7 ital line is always on 
a level with the eye. (2) The point in the horizontal 
line directly opposite the eye is the point of sight , and 
the ray issuing from this point, which forms a right 
angle with the horizontal line, is called the principal 
visual ray. (3) The point of distance is the actual dis¬ 
tance of the eye from the plane of the picture, as meas¬ 
ured on the horizontal line, from the point of sight. 
Now the vanishing points are the points in which parallel 
lines converge perspectively, which points, in level 
planes, are in the horizontal lines, viz. either in the 
point of sight itself, or more or less distant from it, 
according to the position of the observer. When, owing 
to the obliquity of the surface, these converging points 
do not meet in the horizontal line, but strike above or 
below it, they are called accidental points. 

Vehicle is any liquid used to dilute colours to render 
them of a proper consistence to spread on the canvas. 


CHAPTER III. 


LIST OF MATERIALS, WITH USES OF THE COLORS DE¬ 
SCRIBED. 

Where expense is a matter of little or no moment to 
the student it will be best to secure the materials of the 
best old-established makers, such as Windsor cf Newton 
or George Rowney & So?is , but it by no means follows 
that the beginner should adopt the most expensive out¬ 
fit, for the author has tested several of the less expensive 
colours issued by the leading artists’ colourmen of 
America and while some are certainly to be avoided, the 
use of which would render it impossible for the most 
painstaking student to produce satisfactory results, there 
are others which may quite safely be adopted as possess¬ 
ing most of the excellent qualities of the highest priced 
European pigments. One of the most satisfactory boxes 
of colours, among such preparations, is called the 
“Murillo” and is, I believe, imported from Paris. It 
contains eighteen moist colours and three brushes and is 
sold for a dollar. The colours are pure in tone and well 
ground and I have no reason to doubt their ordinary 
permanency, but the Chinese white which it contains 
had better be replaced by a bottle of superior make. 

Moist colours in half-pans are the best adapted for all 
ordinary work, and the student who overcomes the 
temptation to possess a large number of colours in the 
belief that he thereby is able to easily produce any 
required result, but who resolutely confines himself to a 
limited number—say, at most, twenty—will make the 
best and quickest progress; for he will be constantly 
proving the capacity and power of the colours in their 
numerous combinations. While I approve of the selec¬ 
tion of colours in the box referred to, I think it advisable 
to recommend the addition to it of the following: brown 


20 


a guide: to landscape: painting. 


pink, orange vermilion, and cadmium yellow. With this 
outfit you will possess a wizard’s wand, to beckon into 
being ‘things of beauty,’ joys for ever. 

The colours marked thus * in the following list may 
be omitted. 

Yellow Ochre .—for sunny clouds, in thin washes mixed 
with vermilion, scarlet or crimson lake ; for roads, 
mixed with light red or madder brown ; for distant 
greens mixed with blues and browns, thin ; very useful 
to express extensive flat middle distance. 

Raw Sienna .—Very valuable to express rich, sunny 
and autumnal tones, mixed with the blues and browns ; 
as a glaze (thin) over sunny green foliage is very effec¬ 
tive. 

Gamboge is gummy in substance and must, therefore, 
not be used too thick ; produces a juicy green when 
mixed with Antwerp blue ; alone, or only tinged with 
orange vermilion, it is fine for the high lights in grasses 
and near foliage. 

Cadmium .—An intense yellow ; mostly useful in sun¬ 
set effects, but will mix with Antwerp blue or indigo for 
very bright greens. 

Italian Pink *—Mixed with indigo or Antwerp blue 
for rich grass greens ; alone, in medium wash, it makes 
a sunny effect upon near foliage and grasses ; with a 
little Vandyke brown it makes a charming transparent 
shadow wash for middle distances ; never use it thickly, 
but it may be strengthened sometimes by repeating the 
wash. 

Broivn Pink .—With Antwerp blue or indigo it makes 
a series of rich greens for herbage and foliage; with 
gamboge in light washes will produce very pretty sunny 
effects on sappy grasses and in the half lights of all rich 
brown foliage. It will be found a useful colour in repre¬ 
senting extensive distances and foot hills at the time 
when the grasses are changing into brown in early 
summer, and used carefully nothing will exceed its 
beauty and truthfulness in depicting the brown shadows 


LIST OF MATERIALS WITH USES. 


21 


in pools and running brooks where rich brown soil 
prevails. 

Naples Yellow * is opaque ; hence must never be used 
in composing foreground greens ; it is very effective in 
giving the pale yellow light in morning skies and with a 
little vermilion added it represents the soft light lines of 
cloud frequently seen in an otherwise blue sky. 

Indian Red. —A useful dull red, valuable for composing 
purplish greys by mixture with French blue or cobalt. 
Care must be observed in its use as it is with difficulty 
removed from the paper when once dry. 

Light Red .—One of the most useful colours ; mixed 
with blues almost every kind of grey can be made ; with 
Vandyke brown rich, old, broken ‘Adobe’ and earth 
banks can be represented. 

Orange Vermilion. —Much more useful than the or¬ 
dinary vermilion ; an expensive colour to grind, there¬ 
fore care should be exercised in selection ; when a land¬ 
scape is intended to be very bright and sunny, or a 
sunset, the preliminary wash over the entire paper, as 
recommended in Chapter 4, may be made of this, instead 
of the mixture there recommended ; in very thin washes 
it is useful for whitewashed houses or barns on the 
sunlit sides, particularly when the sun is low down in 
the afternoon (the sides in shadow then to be in neutral 
purple, composed of blue, red and ivory black or sepia. 

Carmine gives very truthfully the delightful sunset 
reflections upon the snow-clad sierras, seen at their best 
during the rainy season ; makes delicious shadow com¬ 
binations with French blue, Antwerp or indigo ; useful 
in brilliant touches of drapery, and just tinging a weak 
wash of emerald green will give a very beautiful passage 
of distant, sunny, rolling meadows. This should be 
done by applying it in very delicate tint over the green 
when dry, called a ‘glaze.’ 

Crimson Lake. —Heavier than the above ; more useful 
in mixing with French blue or indigo for very dark 
markings, but, on the whole, should not be preferred to 
vCarmine. 


22 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


Rose Madder .*—A beautiful tender colour, useful in 
forming warm shadow clouds and greys with the various 
blues and black. 

Burnt Sie?i?ia. —Invaluable. Mixed with Antwerp 
blue it makes a warm sunny green ; with indigo a deep, 
rich-toned, shadow green ; if a picture nearing comple¬ 
tion is found to have a too green or crude appearance, a 
thin wash of burnt sienna over the parts in light will 
very materially help it; with madder brown every 
variety of red cow can be painted ; of constant use also 
in roads, brick, tiles, and interwoven with Vandyke 
brown it breaks up large surfaces of green herbage so as 
to give the appearance of grasses and multiplicity of 
weeds, etc. ; in very thin wash it gives the smooth bark 
of the eucalyptus in sunlight, and with a little carmine 
it gives the berry of the pepper tree ; mixed with a little 
madder brown, it makes a good colour for the side of 
the orange in shade, while the lightest part is of orange 
vermilion. 

Real Ultramarine .—The most perfect blue, but washes 
badly and is therefore not the best for beginners. It is, 
moreover, very expensive, and on this account alone is 
not often to be found in ordinary pallets. The French 
blue and cobalt are very satisfactory substitutes. 

Cobalt Blue .—One of the indispensable colours in the 
water color box ; it is semi-opaque and, therefore, should 
not be used heavily in composing foreground greens, but 
in skies and distances, in composing greys with any of 
the reds, and purples with any of the lakes, and neutral 
greys with sepia for rocks, stems of trees and other 
broken foreground items it is most valuable. In com¬ 
bination with gamboge it makes very brilliant greens. 

Aiitwerp Blue .—In addition to its usefulness in the 
creation of greens, by admixture with the yellows, and 
a beautiful transparent green by mixture with Vandyke 
brown, it makes a series of valuable greys for rocks and 
cliffs when mixed with madder brown, or Indian red, or 
light red. It is not supposed to be very permanent, 
hence is not used so freely as French blue or indigo. 


LIST OF MATERIALS WITH USES. 23 

French Blue is much used because of its transparent 
quality and moderate tone. It makes good shadow tints 
for clouds in combination with madder brown, Indian 
red, light red or ivory black, and a range of useful 
shadow tints, with crimson lake and ivory black, or with 
sepia and carmine ; it is serviceable at times to streng¬ 
then the blue in skies. This is often called French 
ultramarine. 

Indigo .—In mixing indigo it must be used sparingly, 
because of its tendency to blackness. It is an intensely 
cold color, hence is applicable to making sea washes and 
running water ; mixtures of indigo (very light) with 
light red, orange vermilion, or madder brown, make a 
series of cool greys, for objects in distances; with 
crimson lake or carmine in thin washes it makes good 
purplish shadows for middle distance objects. 

Madder Brown has a tendency to redness ; makes a 
good wash for near rock masses on which the sun falls, 
for this purpose a very small portion of French or cobalt 
blue should be added, when the wash is dry ; put in the 
forms that are in half-light with same mixture slightly 
strengthened, then, when again dry, the darkest touches 
with additional strength of same colour. Madder brown 
is also useful for putting in the dark rich touches among 
brambles and herbage, for markings in roads and ruts, 
and for making slender tree branches, where they possess 
any colour. 

Vandyke Brown .—Perhaps the most useful brown ; 
with gamboge it makes a pretty colour for tree masses ; 
with the blues it makes very quiet greens for low toned 
pictures ; it is much used as a glaze over greens to 
subdue them ; for masses of brown, which frequently 
exist in middle distances, it is unequalled ; it should be 
used in thin washes generally and repeated when neces¬ 
sary, instead of laying it with full strength in one wash. 

Sepia is colder than Vandyke brown ; makes splendid 
cool greys, mixed with cobalt for distances, and is useful 
in roads, banks of earth, tree stems, etc. 


24 a guide: to landscape painting. 

Ivory Black is serviceable in reducing the brilliancy of 
some intense colours where it is necessary to make very 
dark masses or markings ; with the reds it makes a 
series of greys, useful in some winter skies or masses of 
distant rocks or cliffs, and mixed with cobalt or French 
blue it makes a colder tint for similar purposes. It must 
be used sparingly. 

Emerald Green .—For bits of brilliant drapery, such 
as a woman’s shawl or a rug, when it is necessary to 
introduce it; for that indescribable tint in deep sea 
water, under certain aspects, and for such exceptional 
passages of colour as I have indicated under ‘ Carmine.’ 
If kept moist, a half pan will last for years in ordinary 
practice. 

Purple Madder .*—Useful in sunset effects chiefly ; a 
very beautiful colour, but, like all the madders, is not 
permanent. 

Chinese White .—This is best kept in tube and it is 
advisable to use only the best make, as there are many 
sold which do not dry perfectly white and some which 
do not dry thoroughly at all; it should never be used 
where it can possibly be avoided, nevertheless there are 
occasions when its use is inevitable and effedtts which 
cannot be represented truthfully without it, such, for 
instance, as the morning effect treated of in Chapter 4. 
The student will discover in time that it must be used 
occasionally to assist in the production of floating mists 
and the dreamy hazy mysteries of distant hills and 
valleys. It would be too bewildering to the beginner to 
attempt a description of its use to produce the most 
subtle effects in landscape ; as we have said, it is a pig¬ 
ment the use of which, to an appreciable extent, it is a 
virtue to ignore rather than to encourage. It is useful, 
however, to lay on small high lights which cannot be 
judicially either ‘left out’ or ‘taken out’ (see Chapter 5) 
and for putting in figures or cattle under same conditions. 

Now, the beginner will not act wisely if he encumbers 
himself with more than the colours enumerated above. 


LIST OF MATERIALS WITH USES. 25 

The writer lias found, in an experience of a quarter of a 
century, that every requirement of the art can be met 
by this combination. 

The colours should be arranged in his box in the fol¬ 
lowing order, so that, as he holds it in his left, the 
yellows should be nearest his right hand, the reds next, 
the blues next, and such colours as Vandyke brown, 
ivory black, green, sepia and Chinese white last ; by 
ever keeping them in this order he will soon acquire a 
rapid facility of fixing his brush upon the colour he 
desires, without having to refer to their position and 
names on a chart, which it is advisable he should make 
as soon as he has placed them, for use will soon make 
their surfaces look very much alike. 

PAPER. 

Always use Whatman's ‘Extra Stout Not,’ which 
means that the surface is not hot pressed. This is better 
in many particulars than a smoother surface. Most 
artists’ colourmen keep this paper in what are known as 
‘Sketch Blocks,’ containing many sheets of paper 
fastened securely at their edges on a thick cardboard, 
and when a drawing is finished it is easily removed by 
passing a knife around the edges when the block presents 
a fresh sheet again ready for another picture without 
trouble of mounting. This of course, has its advantage 
in saving of time and labour, but this is more than 
compensated for in the ease of working and the more 
satisfactory flow of the washes upon the paper, if the 
student will adopt the following method : Obtain a 
drawing board, perfectly square, (say 15 x 10 inches ) ; 
have your paper large enough to fold over the back of 
the board one inch all round ; damp the paper on both 
sides with a very soft sponge (applying the water by 
taps, not by rubbing) ; allow it to become nearly dry, 
but take care that it is not quite dry ; then place the 
board upon it, cut the corners so that the end shall 
overlap the sides when they are pasted over on the back 


26 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING, 


without forming a crease at the corner, this is done, ot 
course, by cutting out a right angle ; then paste the 
edges firmly on back of board and place the board with 
pasted edges downward on a flat surface to dry. If this 
is properly done the paper when dry will present a flat 
dead surface and will not pucker during the progress of 
the drawing, which occurs, more or less, with the blocks. 

Paper has a finished and an unfinished side, the 
finished side (on which, of course, the picture is painted) 
may be ascertained by holding the sheet between the eye 
and the light, and when the name ‘ Whatman,’ in water 
mark, reads rightly from left to right then the finished 
side is near the eye, and it may be indicated by placing 
a mark in the corners of the paper, which can then be 
cut into required sizes without losing sight of the right 
side. 


BRUSHES. 

It is indispensable to have a good water or sky brush, 
and although, of course, a sable would always be pre¬ 
ferred yet the ‘ Siberian hair ’ is a really good brush and 
is only one-third the cost of sable. It should be at least 
half an inch wide at the ferule and flat with full hairs. 

The other brushes should be of three sizes ; one for 
very fine touches, the next for general work, and the 
third for large washes, the largest of the three being less 
than the thickness of a small cedar pencil. They are 
known in the best makers’ lists as Nos. 2, 4 and 6, in 
round albata ferrules. An easel, a small fine sponge and 
some thick blotting paper will complete the outfit for 
studio work. 

For outdoor sketching the following items will add 
much to the convenience and enjoyment of the work : 
sketching stool, light sketching easel, umbrella with 
joint and spike to drive into the ground, water bottle 
and small cups or dippers. 


CHAPTER IV. 


ON MIXING COLOURS, WITH A LIST OF USEFUL COM¬ 
BINATIONS. 

Always have regard to the extent or quantity of the 
wash required, then place in your palette the necessary 
quantity of water to which you will add the colour or 
colours until the requisite degree of strength is obtained; 
by this means uniformity of tone is secured ; and here 
must be reiterated the instruction to be careful in seeing 
that all the colour is discharged from the brush, or the 
result will be blotches as the brush is applied to the 
paper. In mixing colour for dark small markings, do 
not use much water, but use the brush saturated only at 
its point; by this means the colour can be applied strong 
and crisp, which is essential in the foreground detail. In 
taking the colour from the pans see that your brush is 
moist only, not full of zvater , for if it is you will waste 
much of your pigments, and your box will too speedily 
require replenishing. When two tints have to be blended 
it is not necessary to use two brushes, indeed it will be 
fouiid advantageous to use the same brush; having the 
both tints ready prepared, dip the brush into the second 
tint and apply it to the lower edge of the first wash; 
the point of unison will be less perceptible than if two 
brushes are used. When Chinese white is used with 
any tint it is best to rub the white into the tint with the 
finger point, for if the brush is used for this purpose it 
will nearly always be found that particles of the white 
remain uncharged with the tint, and although their 
measurement is infinitesimal yet the result of the wash 
will be ‘chalky.’ 

Such small matters of detail as this, and many others 
contained in this little guide, may be considered for the 
moment as trifling and unimportant, but the student 


28 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


will soon find that they contribute very materially to his 
progress in practice and add many charms to pictorial 
effect. 


SOME COLOUR COMBINATIONS FOR SKIES. 


Clear blue sky. 
Light clouds. 


Shaded clouds , 
(warm.) 


Cold clouds. 


Purple clouds 
(at sunset.) 


Crimson clouds , 
( sunset .) 

Brillia n t yellow 
of sunset. 

Subdued yellow 
of sunset. 


Ultramarine, cobalt, or cobalt and 
very little rose madder. 

Orange vermilion, or light red and 
yellow ochre, or Naples yellow tinged 
with rose madder or vermilion. 

Yellow ochre and madder brown, or 
Naples 3 r ellow and madder brown, or 
ivory black and light red, or light red 
and cobalt. 

Indigo and light red, or ivor} r black 
and indigo, or Payne’s grey and light 
red; or indigo, French blue and ver¬ 
milion. 

Crimson lake and French blue, 
crimson lake and cobalt, carmine and 
French blue, carmine and indigo, or 
purple madder. 

Crimson lake, or crimson lake and 
carmine, or light red and rose madder. 

Cadmium yellow, or cadmium and 
gamboge. 

Yellow ochre and Indian red, or a 
little rose madder. 


COMBINATIONS FOR SEA. 

Distant sea. Indigo, or French blue, or French 

blue and ivory black, and for the deep 
purplish blue frequently seen below 
the horizon or under dark clouds, use 
indigo and crimson lake. 


MIXING COLOURS—COMBINATIONS. 


2 9 


Stormy sea. 


Sea greens. 


Deep shadows in 
waves possess¬ 
ing colour. 

Rocks of grey. 


Rocks having 
colour. 


Raw sienna and ivory black, burnt 
sienna and indigo, or burnt sienna and 
Antwerp blue, or cobalt blue and Van¬ 
dyke brown, or raw sienna and Van¬ 
dyke brown. 

Cobalt and gamboge, Prussian blue 
and gamboge, cadmium 3^ellow and 
Antwerp blue, cadmium yellow and 
French blue. 

Emerald green, (this is rarely used 
alone, but for the beautiful green, full 
of light, sometimes seen in deep rock 
pools a thin wash of this over gam¬ 
boge and cobalt is admirable) raw 
sienna and indigo. For those parts 
of the waves catching most light use 
raw sienna, or raw sienna and Van¬ 
dyke brown, or Roman ochre. 

Burnt sienna and cobalt, or burnt 
sienna, indigo and Indian yellow. 

ROCKS. 

Payne’s grey (very light) or ivory 
black and light red, or ivory black and 
vermilion, or ivory black and madder 
brown, or cobalt and light red, or in¬ 
digo and light red, or Vandyke brown 
and French blue, or indigo and mad¬ 
der brown, or indigo and rose madder 
and a little yellow ochre, or orange 
vermilion and ivory black, or orange 
vermilion and blue. 

Burnt sienna, or burnt sienna and 
ivory black, or burnt sienna and 
Pajme’s grey, or madder brown, or 
madder brown and sepia (a beautiful 
colour) or madder brown and raw 
sienna, or Payne’s grey and vermilion. 


30 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


Mountains Cobalt with slight addition of yellow 

(Remote. ) ochre and rose madder ; cobalt, indigo, 
and rose madder; or cobalt and Payne’s 
grey and a little rose madder. If very 
cold, Payne’s grey and cobalt, or 
Payne’s grey and indigo. 


Mountains 

(Nearer.) 


Patches of Herb¬ 
age on M 02171 - 
tains m Dis¬ 
tance. 


First wash over with yellow ochre 
and light red, or yellow ochre and 
brown madder; or, if very sunny, use 
yellow ochre and rose madder, or light 
red alone. Put in the shadows with 
French blue and madder brown, or 
Cobalt and madder brown ; or madder 
brown, Payne’s grey and cobalt; or 
cobalt, sepia and madder brown, or 
indigo and purple madder; or cobalt, 
ivory black and purple madder. 

Yellow ochre, Antwerp blue and a 
little rose madder; or yellow ochre 
and a little cobalt; or yellow ochre, 
indigo and a little light red ; or yellow 
ochre, Vandyke brown and a little 
cobalt; or raw sienna and cobalt with 
a little rose madder. The above may 
be glazed afterwards with light washes 
of either of the following: gamboge, 
Italian pink, raw sienna or burnt 
sienna. 


FOREGROUND, HERBAGE, ETC. 

Grass Greeiis. Antwerp blue and Indian yellow, or 

Prussian blue and Indian yellow, or 
gamboge and blue. 

Broken Greens. Burnt Sienna, Indian yellow and 

Antwerp blue; or raw sienna, lake 
and Prussian blue; or gamboge, sepia 
and indigo; or brown pink and Ant¬ 
werp blue; or brown pink and indigo; 
or brown pink alone. 


MIXING COLOURS—COMBINATIONS. 


31 


Warm tones in Burnt sienna, or raw sienna, or In- 
sun. dian yellow and madder brown, or 

Italian pink, or gamboge and rose 
madder, or Indian yellow and a little 
lake. 


Glossy Leaves in Cobalt and Indian yellow, gamboge 
high light. and cobalt, Prussian blue and rose 

madder, or indigo and rose madder, or 
cobalt and Naples yellow, or indigo. 

Dead Stems and Madder brown, or madder brown 
Leaves. and burnt sienna, or burnt sienna and 

Vandyke brown, or Vandyke brown 
and crimson lake, or burnt sienna 
alone. 


FOR CATTLE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 


If dark brown. 


If bay. 


If light. 
If black. 


Sheep. 


Vandyke brown; or Vandyke brown, 
sepia and crimson lake; or crimson 
lake and ivory black. 

Madder brown and a little yellow 
ochre, madder brown and light red, or 
burnt sienna and madder brown, or 
Indian red and madder brown. 

Hither yellow ochre, burnt sienna, 
or light red. 

Ivory black and crimson lake; or 
ivory black, indigo and carmine; or 
indigo and crimson lake; or Prussian 
blue and crimson lake; or Payne’s 
grey and Vandyke brown. 

Hither yellow ochre, Roman ochre, 
or Roman ochre and Vandyke brown; 
or yellow ochre and a little madder 
brown. 


FOLIAGE. 

I11 representing foreground foliage the first important 
consideration is its character. Note and sketch accur- 


32 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

ately its outline, its masses in light and in shade and the 
direction of its branches and stems. Remember that 
you cannot paint in detail its multitudinous leaves, but 
yet must represent their appearance , hence the lights and 
shadows must be sharp and crisp. This is effected best 
by using the colour tolerably dry, and applying it by 
dragging the side of the brush on the paper. The fol¬ 
lowing combinations will supply every required need, 
and in making your selection first assure yourself of the 
distinctive colour of the tree, or its appearance, whether 
it is more or less yellow, as in strong mid-day light, or 
inclined to red or rich brown, as in evening light. I 
have thought it advisable to specify the combinations 
best adapted for the portrayal of trees charactistic of the 
ordinary California landscape, as general remarks would 
not sufficiently apply to such trees as the pepper, the 
live oak and the palm, and I am not aware that any 
specific instructions for the painting of these have been 
hitherto published. 

Distant foliage. Very distant foliage must be put in 

without any detail, merely regarding 
the outline or form, and the tints used 
must be more or less gray or neutral, 
because it will be observed that green 
trees in the extreme distance do not 
appear green, but are only darker 
masses than the objects surrounding 
them. For this purpose use cobalt 
blue and light red, or French blue and 
light red, or cobalt and burnt sienna, 
or madder brown and indigo (avoiding 
heaviness) or sepia and a little cobalt 
blue. Sometimes extreme distance 
foliage is best represented by cobalt 
or French blue alone and afterwards 
touched lightly on their shadow sides 
with rose madder or Vandyke brown. 


MIXING COLOURS—COMBINATIONS. 


33 


Middle distance must partake more of its local or 
foliage, actual colouring, but yet must be kept 
subdued in tone and show no intricate 
detail of form. In general sunlight 
effects the parts in light are well rep¬ 
resented by yellow ochre and a little 
French blue; or sepia, yellow ochre 
and a little French blue, or yellow 
ochre and Vandyke brown, or pale 
Indian yellow and a little indigo and 
Vandyke brown, or raw sienna and 
cobalt and the side parts in shade by 
Vandyke brown and French blue, or 
Vandyke brown and indigo, or madder 
brown and indigo, or sepia and Van¬ 
dyke brown, or a little lake with in¬ 
digo and Vandyke brown. The stems 
should be ‘taken out’ (if seen) and 
the places then tinted with light red, 
or pale Vandyke brown and red, or 
raw sienna. If it is found necessary 
to add touches or washes of still deeper 
tone, which become necessary only 
as the foreground is approached, let 
the colours used be quiet and brown. 


Foreground 
foliage gener¬ 
ally, (lights.) 

Those marked thus* 
are for autumnal or 
evening effects. 


Raw sienna, Italian pink, gam¬ 
boge, gamboge and sepia, gamboge 
and Vandyke brown, Indian yellow 
and a little Antwerp blue, Italian pink 
and Antwerp blue; gamboge, burnt 
sienna and Antwerp blue; * Italian 
pink, indigo and a little burnt sienna; 
gamboge, brown madder and Antwerp 
blue; brown pink and a little indigo; 
* burnt sienna, * Indian yellow, * In¬ 
dian yellow and lake, * Italian pink 
and a little burnt sienna. 


34 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

In shade. Vandyke brown and indigo; Van¬ 

dyke brown, burnt sienna and Antwerp 
blue; Vandyke brown and French 
blue; Vandyke brown, brown pink 
and French blue; madder brown, in¬ 
digo and gamboge; * Indian yellow 
and purple madder; * Prussian blue 
and lake; * French blue and lake; 
raw sienna, Antwerp blue and Van¬ 
dyke brown; * Roman ochre and mad¬ 
der brown, olive green. 

Several colours not contained in the beginner’s box 
are mentioned here, but it does not imply the necessity 
of using them, onty to make the list of combinations 
tolerably complete, in order that the student may at his 
convenience use them when desirous of extending his 
knowledge of pigments and their expression. 

Pepper tree. First wash of gamboge and a little Ant¬ 
werp blue ; indicate the thickest masses in shade by a 
wash of the same, to which a little more Antwerp blue 
and burnt sienna is added; note the deepest small 
shadows and put them in with Vandyke brown and 
indigo ; make the drooping stems of raw sienna and 
Vandyke brown and the stump and larger branches of 
yellow ochre, light red and a little vermilion. When 
perfectly dry, take oiit fine lines of light in a few places 
against the shadow masses (to represent the sheen 
produced by the sunlight upon the drooping stems and 
leaves) ; this can be done very effectively by a careful 
use of the point of a .sharp knife, instead of using 
water and handkerchief, which would frequently make 
too wide a line ; afterwards to finish use Vandyke brown, 
or Vandyke brown and a little lake, or madder brown to 
give the shaded sides of the trunk and large branches, 
also the deepest foliage shadows, and finally, add touches 
of deep colour, crisp and sharp, to the stalks and stems 
where required, using Vandyke brown, burnt sienna, or 
madder brown, or varied compounds of them. It may 


MIXING COLOURS—COMBINATIONS. 


35 


be found necessary to touch the lines of light taken out 
by the knife with a fine pointed brush charged with 
Naples yellow. When the tree is in berry and it is 
required to represent the clusters of tiny crimson globes 
which, next to the orange, fascinate the eyes of all our 
visitors, it will be found best to first paint the tree ; then 
after rubbing up with the finger tip some Chinese white 
into a thick pasty consistency to apply it with a fine- 
pointed brush (only using the point for the purpose) and 
when the clusters are formed and are quite dry mix two 
tints, one of crimson lake or carmine and the other of 
burnt sienna and (using a separate brush for each tint) 
apply them irregularly to the white, sometimes using 
the burnt sienna tint and at other points the carmine or 
lake. Do not touch any one berry while wet with both 
tints ; wait until again perfectly dry, then finish by 
touching the berries on their shaded sides with Vandyke 
brown and unite them by tendril stems of the same 
colour. 

This may be a good place to emphasize an important 
lesson as to the value of shadows. Supposing you have 
painted your tree against clear sky, with no surround¬ 
ings but the sward or pathway by which it stands, look 
at it now that you have finished it and, unless you are 
conceited, you will note, however successfully you may 
have done your work, that there is something still 
lacking ; it looks bare and unfinished , although the tree 
itself may be sufficiently and effectively finished. It 
requires its inevitable shadow. It could not exist without 
a shadow ; you never saw one without its complement. 
So mix a tolerably strong wash of Antwerp blue, crimson 
lake and ivory black and with a brush well charged with 
this tint lay it over the proper ground space from the 
trunk of the tree outward and you immediately strike 
your tree into life. 

Live oak. Note the ‘bunchy’ appearance of the 
foliage masses, indicating the requirement of more 
broken washes than the ordinary oak and other trees. 


36 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

The most useful combinations are: gamboge and Van¬ 
dyke brown ; yellow ochre, Vandyke brown and indigo ; 
Indian yellow and Vandyke brown; brown pink and 
French blue; burnt sienna and Antwerp blue, with 
indigo added for black shadows; Roman ochre and 
French blue; raw sienna, madder brown and Prussian 
blue; gamboge, ivory black and a little Antwerp blue ; 
olive green. For glazing use raw sienna or burnt 
sienna, very thin. 

Its trunk a?id branches. Madder brown and indigo ; 
sepia and madder brown; burnt sienna and Payne’s 
grey; madder brown and ivory black; raw sienna and a 
little carmine or crimson lake ; sepia and Vandyke brown. 

Palm. Use gamboge and cobalt; gamboge and Ant¬ 
werp blue, or pale cadmium and Prussian blue for first 
wash. For the shaded sides of the leaves use same 
wash with indigo or Prussian blue added. Glaze the 
shaded sides with Antwerp blue and burnt sienna, or 
burnt sienna alone, or madder brown alone. Put in the 
stalk with burnt sienna and Vandyke brown, or burnt 
sienna heightened by a touch of vermilion, if in strong 
light, and mark out the diamond-like cuttings with 
madder brown and ivory black. Treat the lines of light 
upon the sharp blades in same manner as given under 
pepper trees. 

Orange Trees. For the darkest leaves use Prussian 

blue and bistre; or Prussian blue, 
bistre and Indian yellow, varied by 
olive green and burnt sienna; or In¬ 
dian yellow, Vandyke brown and in¬ 
digo ; or brown pink, Vandyke brown 
and indigo; or Indian yellow, sepia, 
indigo and cobalt. For the young 
lighter green leaves use gamboge, 
burnt sienna, indigo and a little cobalt; 
or raw sienna and indigo; or Italian 
pink with either indigo or cobalt; or 
gamboge and Antwerp blue; or raw 


MIXING COLOURS—COMBINATIONS. 37 

Orange Trees , sienna and Antwerp blue; or raw 
(< continued .) sienna, Antwerp blue and a little brown 
pink. The tendril stems should be 
put in with some of these combina¬ 
tions, and afterwards strengthened on 
their shadow sides by brown markings. 

In putting in the deep shadows between the masses of 
foliage, use rose madder and Prussian blue with a little 
Indian yellow or brown pink added; or crimson lake and 
Prussian blue; or crimson lake and Antwerp blue— 
always taking care that these deep recesses of shadow 
are more inclined to be blue than is the warmer colour in 
the combination, and against these very broken shadows, 
and partially covered by the green leafage, place the 
golden fruit, with variations of the following: the 
brightest yellow sides catching the sunlight—orange 
vermilion, in various degrees of tint; orange vermilion 
and a little light red; orange vermilion and a little rose 
madder. When very pale, orange vermilion and a little 
Naples yellow. For the darker fruit add various degrees 
of light red, Indian red, and light red and madder 
brown; for the extreme shadow sides of the fruit weave 
in delicate touches of rose madder and French blue. 

Now, in drawing your tree you will have indicated the 
most prominent clusters of fruit and have ‘left out’ their 
forms in working with colour; others will now have to 
be ‘ taken out ’ and these spaces will be made white, to 
receive the orange colour, by use of Chinese white (un¬ 
less the ‘ taking out ’ is so perfectly done as to leave the 
paper clean enough for the orange tint.) In applying 
the tints to the parts having Chinese white two things 
must be observed, ist. The white must be quite dry and 
the tint laid upon it with a soft brush very quickly, so as 
not to disturb the Chinese white. 2d. The tint must be 
stronger than would be required by the paper alone , because 
it is in a measure absorbed by the white, and therefore 
dries duller. 

The orange tree, because of its variety of deep and 


38 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

light green leafage, its dark shadows and reflected lights, 
affords admirable study to those who will seek to under¬ 
stand that a tree must not be painted with green paint , 
but that the browns and reds and strong grey tones 
must be freely used to represent with truthfulness its 
appearance to our eye. 


CHAPTER V. 


ON BROAD WASHES, FOR SKIES, SEA, FLAT DISTANCES, 

ETC. 

The beginner finds one of his greatest difficulties in 
laying on broad flat washes without producing ridges of 
colour, or streakiness, which, of course, would be fatal 
to clear unbroken sky effects. The paper should be 
moistened while at an angle of forty-five degrees (and 
this is about the inclination the drawing should occupy 
during the whole process of painting the picture) by 
passing the flat sable or ‘sky’ brush, charged with clear 
water, over the whole surface, beginning on the left 
hand top corner and working the brush from left to 
right; a slight tremulous motion of the hand during the 
process will help the paper to absorb the water and after 
canning the brush across the surface it should be again 
quickly charged with water and be placed just at the 
lower edge of the last wash so as to catch the deposit of 
moisture there and so carried across in as rapid succes¬ 
sion as possible, until the whole surface is moistened. 

Two or three minutes should be allowed to elapse in 
order that the paper may thoroughly absorb the mois¬ 
ture and then, while it is still damp, but having no 
floating water on its surface, there should be passed over 
it, in the same manner, an orange wash composed of 
yellow ochre and light red—if the picture is to be an 
ordinary sunlight effect—or of yellow ochre and Indian 
red or madder brown if the effect is to be sombre or gray. 
Now, here it is necessary to emphasize the above instruc¬ 
tion about the exercise of extreme care to prevent too 
much moisture floating at the lower edge of each succes¬ 
sive wash across the paper, for should the colour be 
allowed to float too heavily it will break away and 
trickle in a line down the paper, which line would be 



40 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


seen for ever afterwards, however many washes the 
drawing might thereafter receive. As this accident is a 
common one with beginners, and as the successful opera¬ 
tion of laying flat or graduated washes is the secret of 
much of the charm of water colour pictures, the student 
will do well to practice this method diligently at the 
beginning, and in a few days it will become an easy 
matter. It will be found advisable at times when it is 
seen the brush is too full, to touch it to a damp sponge 
which will absorb some of the superfluous wash. 

One word more on this important although apparently 
very simple process of laying a perfectly flat wash : in 
continuing the colour downwards, let the newly charged 
brush only touch the floating colour in the previous line, 
so as to blend it; don’t rub the brush up into the past 
colour space. Should it be found that the paper seems 
greasy and refuses to accept the wash easily, just add 
three drops of ox gall to the water in use (say to half a 
tumblerful.) 

The use of the above wash of neutral orange (see 
chapter 3, under ‘orange vermilion’) serves in a remark¬ 
able degree to preserve atmosphere in the picture, as it 
slightly breaks the subsequent layers of colour and 
prevents crudeness. Now, suppose the sky to be repre¬ 
sented is an ordinary blue sky with a broken line or two 
of soft light clouds. Make a wash of cobalt blue of the 
desired strength, always taking care that you make 
wash enough to cover your sky space—as it would be 
difficult to make a second of the exact tone if you ran 
short—and beginning at the top left hand corner carry it 
over all the paper representing sky space, except the 
parts of light clouds, and when you reach the horizon 
apply to the lowest edge of the wash a piece of thick 
blotting paper to absorb the moisture ; do not press the 
blotting on the colour, only touch its edge and so draw 
the superfluous moisture down into the blotting ; this 
will be found to slightly reduce the tone of blue at and 
near the horizon. Before using this wash, however, and 


BROAD WASHES. 


41 


when the orange wash is perfectly dry, go over the whole 
surface with clear water, as in the first instance. This 
answers two purposes ; first, it removes any small par¬ 
ticles of orange colour which have not been absorbed 
into the paper and which if not so removed would 
depreciate the purity of any after washes, and, secondly, 
it prepares the paper again to receive the cobalt without 
causing lines or ridges, which would probably occur if 
the cobalt were applied to the paper when dry. Should 
it be found that the cobalt when dry is not of the desired 
strength, repeat the wash ( or a diluted one ) after clear 
water as at first. 

The clouds may next be put in (the blue being dry ) 
with a slight wash of Naples yellow tinged with ver¬ 
milion. When this is dry, go over the whole again with 
water which will tend to soften the edges of the clouds ; 
this last water bath should be brought down over the 
entire paper. 

FOR GRADUATED WASHES, USEFUL IN SOFT SUNRISE 

AND SUNSET EFFECTS. 

After the preliminary orange wash, which for morning 
should have the slightest touch of red only, and for 
evening an addition of a small quantity of cadmium in 
the space just above the horizon, mix a wash of cad¬ 
mium or chrome yellow and commence at the top as 
usual with clear water bringing it down over one-third 
of the sky, or a little beyond ; then let the water brush 
be dipped in the yellow wash without thoroughly be¬ 
coming charged with the full strength of the colour, and 
blend into the water line right across the paper ; at the 
next free dip of the brush into the colour it will become 
charged with the full strength of yellow ; blend it into 
the last application in the usual manner and so on down 
to a short distance from the horizon ; then dip the brush 
in clear water so as to reduce the colour strength again, 
and so on with each successive application and the result 
will be a soft graduated tint from light orange to pale 

4 


42 A GUIDK TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

yellow, deep yellow, pale yellow again, into the orange 
below ; when dry, apply clear water as usual; then when 
the paper is almost dry, turn the drawing board upside 
down and begin at the top (which is the base of the 
picture) with clear water and bring it down to where 
the yellow was first commenced, and at this point com¬ 
mence a tint of cobalt blue to which is added a touch of 
vermilion and carry this tint right on over the upper 
sky. When dry, and after the clear wash again, repeat 

► 

this process with less vermilion than before, and blending 
it into the water a little lower in the sky, that is, let it 
be commenced over the pale yellow tint and the result 
when dry will be a pearly upper blue graduating into 
an almost imperceptible tender green, and then into the 
transparent yellow and pale tint near the horizon. Be 
sure the board is not reversed while the paper is wet. 

A few soft purple clouds may now be touched in near 
the upper sky, and these may be composed of carmine 
or crimson lake and ultramarine or French blue, of 
moderate strength only. Across the lowest sky may 
now be put in the crimson or purple lake coloured 
clouds, which so frequently are seen in combination with 
such an effect, and these are accomplished by using in 
moderate or full strength as the occasion requires, either 
crimson lake, crimson lake and carmine, or purple lake. 
Against such a sky a broken mass of deep foliage, com¬ 
posed of Vandyke brown, Indian yellow and indigo 
or French blue, is very effective. 

A quiet graduated morning effect may be secured by 
washes in the same manner, by using the following 
tints : Naples yellow and a touch of gamboge, for the 
light portion ; cobalt blue and ivory black, or cobalt 
blue and lamp black, or cobalt blue and Payne’s grey, 
with a particle of indigo added for the upper sky ( a very 
weak wash ) and the lower sky bearing a layer of clouds 
with sharp broken edges composed of Payne’s grey and 
indigo, very thin, to which should be added a bit of 
Chinese white, say about the size of two pins’ heads for 


BROAD WASHES. 


43 


a drawing 12x9 inches. The white is added for two 
purposes ; first, because being opaque it will operate to 
prevent the bluish gray wash turning green in contact 
with the pale yellow light upon which it is placed, and, 
next, because its opacity will help to give the cold 
lifeless appearance to the lower clouds or mists, which 
the sun is not yet strong enough to permeate. 

It is not too much to say that the student who prac¬ 
tices these two combinations of sky colour and methods 
a few times will be rewarded by a facility in the execu¬ 
tion of broad and graduated washes, as well as by an 
appreciation of the power of water colour to represent 
atmosphere to an extent far beyond his expectations. 

It will sometimes be found, even after the utmost care 
has been exercised, that slight lines of colour are formed, 
called streakiness, and frequently they can be modified 
during the process of washing off with clear water by 
repeated applications of the brush across the lines or 
streaks. When once a space is covered by colour do not 
go back over it with another wash while it is wet; if it 
requires strengthening wait until it is quite dry. Every 
time the brush is carried to the palette for colour quickly 
mix the wash, or a sediment will form and the wash on 
the paper be uneven. 

In painting masses of graduated colour, such as round 
masses of cloud, the lightest tint of the mass should be 
painted first and carried all over it; when this is dry the 
next or half tints should be put upon it, and so on until 
the deepest tints are put in with small decided touches. 


CHAPTER VI. 


•ON VARIOUS MEANS AND METHODS. 

In the last chapter sufficient emphasis has been laid 
on the necessity of allowing each successive wash to dry 
before applying the next, and of keeping the colour on 
the palette constantly stirred to prevent formation of 
sediment, also that to ensure delicacy and uniformity in 
all large washes, such as skies and distances, clear water 
should be used between the washes. Blotting paper 
may be used to absorb the superfluous moisture of this 
clear wash by pressing it evenly over the entire surface, 
thereby leaving the paper ready at once to receive the 
next wash and saving time. 

High lights. Clear and sharp lights, such as the 
silvery edges of some clouds, or the reflection of same 
in water, or any object catching bright light, should, 
when possible, be left out ; that is the spaces should not 
receive the first or succeeding washes ; but if they are 
only half-lights, being soft and indistinct, then they may 
be passed over with the wash and blotting paper pressed 
upon the spaces immediately to absorb the colour. 

Use of sponge and blotting in softening or rounding 
masses of colour , producing half-lights , etc. Where it is 
desirable to soften the edges of a mass, or say to gradu¬ 
ate the colour in clouds, let the sponge be squeezed as 
dry as possible and applied carefully to the parts required 
to be lightened, constantly after every touch turning the 
sponge a little, so as to apply a clean surface at every 
application to the colour. If the sponge is of a fine 
fibre and squeezed sufficiently dry the effect will be very 
satisfactory. For small spaces the blotting may be sub¬ 
stituted for the sponge, applying its edge to the part. 
Sometimes the desired gradation of tone can be secured 
best by applying the brush to the moist colour, after 


VARIOUS MEANS AND METHODS. 45 

squeezing it through the sponge. Either of these 
methods may be adopted in representing light reflections 
in still water (used perpendicularly) which will produce 
a pretty and very truthful transparent effect if when dry 
a line or two of light and sky colour are drawn horizon¬ 
tally across them. The sponge is also useful when the 
surface of the drawing is dry, to remove too heavy 
patches of colour, but it is advisable again to enforce 
the precaution of squeezing it as dry as possible before 
every application to the paper ; after being so squeezed 
it will still retain moisture enough for the purpose. 

To take out lights and half lights .—When the colour is 
quite dry, touch the parts intended to be taken out with 
a brush charged moderately with water, allow the mois¬ 
ture to stay on the paper a few seconds, then apply 
blotting paper and quickly rub the part with an old silk 
or other soft rag ; do not rub hard but briskly, and if 
sufficient colour is not removed by the first application 
repeat the water and again rub lightly. By careful use 
of this method quite a series of modified tones can be 
produced from the lowest to the highest light. 

Eines of light on still water, 

Flecks and masses of sea foam, 

Sharp grasses and broken herbage, 

Gates and palings, 

Rocks and stones, 

Light branches of trees, when they stand against 
masses of shadow foliage, 

and many other forms can be produced quickly in this 
way. The spaces from which the colour has thus been 
wholly or partially removed may then be glazed over 
with their local colour, taking care not to disturb the 
colour of the surrounding parts. Sometimes the point 
of a sharp knife is best to take out a very fine high light. 
It is seldom that sea foam can be adequately represented 
without the addition of Chinese white worked irregularly 
over the spaces so worked upon. 

Sea gulls against a sky should never be ‘ taken out ’ 
for fear of injuring the tender purity of the sky ; they 


46 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

should always be put in with Chinese white and their 
under parts touched whe7i dry with shadow colour. 

A good illustrative example of ‘ taking out. ’—Suppose 
it is desired to represent a mass of broken rocks or sea 
cliff, their cracks and broken edges, and infinite angles 
of surfaces in light and shade, appearing to defy the 
possibility of reproduction. Draw the mass without 
reference to detail; next, discern the few masses of light 
and shadow covering the whole and draw outlines of 
these; then look for the direction which the chief mark¬ 
ings or cracks of the entire mass take, that is whether 
perpendicular, horizontal or oblique; now cover the 
entire space with a wash, say of sepia, tinged with light 
red, rather light; next cover the shadow portions with 
a similar wash, strengthened by adding more sepia; 
then put in a few markings of cracks, etc., in the 
required direction to indicate the character of the rock ; 
next put in, with a little stronger colour still, the 
deepest or darkest cracks or fissures and when dry 
proceed to take out lights and half lights in varied 
degrees ; to still further increase the effect of brokenness 
and detail, pass the brush charged with a thin wash of 
vermilion and cobalt blue over some of the taken out 
spaces in the portion of the mass in light, and with a 
wash of crimson lake and indigo in the shadow portion. 
When dry, add a few final touches where it may be 
necessary to give sharpness and shadow, and the effect 
will be one of detail and multiplicity beyond anything 
which could be obtained by the most laborious ‘ niggling.’ 

Scumbling .—The effect of distance, where objects are 
indistinctly seen through the intervening vapour, and 
the same effect in gorges and deep canyons can be pro¬ 
duced by scumbling, which is executed in the following 
manner : rub a little Chinese white and neutral grey 
colour thoroughly together with as little water as pos¬ 
sible and, when they are perfectly mixed, with a stiff 
brush rub the colour over and into the too distinct 
objects in the distance or chasm, with a circular motion 
of the hand, until the objects are partially obliterated ; 


VARIOUS MEANS AND METHODS. 47 

afterward, when the ‘ scumble ’ is dry, touch the parts in 
places with light tints of local coloring. 

Glazing .—This consists of passing a wash of trans¬ 
parent colour over the parts requiring enrichment. Raw 
sienna, Italian pink and gamboge are all excellent colours 
to use in this way over foliage and grasses lighted up by 
the sun; burnt sienna alone, or mixed with either of the 
foregoing, is admirably adapted to give rich autumnal or 
evening tints upon foliage, etc. 

Never use an opaque colour for glazing. The opaque 
and transparent colours in your box may be discerned 
by noticing that some reflect the light and others absorb 
the light. For instance, raw sienna, being a transparent 
pigment, will not reflect the light or appear to shine like 
emerald green, which being opaque, reflects the light. 
Glazings should always be thin. 

Softening is the process of washing with clean water 
between the paintings, to which I have referred more 
particularly under ‘Sketching from Nature.’ It is sur¬ 
prising to what an extent this can be practised with 
very heavy paper, such as Whatman’s ‘Griffin Anti¬ 
quarian ’ and carefully selected pigments. The author 
remembers an occasion, several years ago, when under 
very inspiring conditions, surrounded by several rollick¬ 
ing, happy*, Didsbury students, he worked up an ‘Im¬ 
perial’ drawing (‘ Rest at Eve,’ now in the possession 
of J. Widdicombe, Esq., Enfield, London,) with severe 
application of this process. So severely indeed did he 
apply it that again and again he found himself, after 
successive washes of tender sky and cloud tints, in the 
kitchen holding the drawing under the full flush of the 
water tap and rushing to dry it again by the big kitchen 
fire. In this instance, the effect has been flatteringly 
alluded to by many critiqs. 

In adopting this method be sure always that your 
colours are quite dry before the washing, and never mb 
the brush against the paper. Also take care to absorb 
the surface moisture by applying blotting paper as 
quickly as possible. 


CHAPTER VII. 


ON sketching from nature. 

Commence with the simplest subjects : an old doorway, 
the stump and branches of an old tree having only a 
little foliage, or a simple cottage ; then advance to a tree 
in full foliage, giving most attention to its outline of 
masses in light and shadow; do not think of painting 
the individual leaves, but only to discern its character , 
so that anyone can tell whether your sketch is intended 
for a pepper, an oak, or a eucalyptus tree. (Finished 
detail of foliage is a very advanced stage of the art; you 
are now learning.) Repeat the tree, with a little more 
attention this time to the edges of the masses in light, 
and give touches to the edges which shall best represent 
the form of the leaf. In this second trial sketch put in 
the ground around the tree, with its grasses, or pave¬ 
ment border, or road. 

After say half a dozen such sketches, change the 
subject to a distant mountain view, putting out of sight 
for a few days the first sketches. This will preserve 
your interest intact and you will be able with better 
perception to revert to the tree studies, and to discern 
their shortcomings. After you have made your best 
representation of the distant mountain—not attempting 
to put in all the detail of the intervening landscape— 
mark out the principle features of it and indicate them 
with as much freedom of touch as you can command. 

ILLUSTRATION OF METHOD. 

Let the sky be composed of cobalt, brought down to 
the mountains’ crown. For the Sierra Madre mountains, 
in an ordinary afternoon light, use first wash of light 
red, orange vermilion and French blue. When dry put 
in the forms of shadows with French blue and light red 
(the French blue predominating.) Repeat the.se washes 


SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 


49 


if necessary. Use the last wash again to touch in the 
darkest markings of all, and this may be done before the 
second wash is perfectly dry. The foothills should now 
be put in with yellow ochre in their lightest parts or 
surfaces, over which carry a thin wash of Antwerp blue 
or French blue, where green is displayed , and, lastly, 
mark the undulations in shadow by various degrees of 
madder brown, Vandyke brown and Indian red—taking 
care not to use these colours too heavily. Here and 
there will be masses of foliage, which may be put in 
very effectively by a mixture of burnt sienna and French 
blue, varied in places by cobalt and sepia. Distant 
cottages can be ‘ taken out ’ and the spaces tinted with 
the requisite colours, but some will be left white. 

Do not attempt to put in everythbig you see or you 
will make the sketch look very weak; only endeavor to 
represent the character of the scene. 

For the foreground, use yellow ochre and light red for 
road; gamboge for brightest of the grass patches; gam¬ 
boge and Antwerp blue for bright greens; Vandyke 
brown and Antwerp blue for deep greens; the dark 
touches may be composed of Vandyke brown, and Van¬ 
dyke brown and crimson lake, in various degrees of 
strength. When dry, the foreground (if the appearance 
of the herbage i$ very sappy, as after rain) may be 
glazed in some places with thin raw sienna, or Italian 
pink. 

Now, having made several sketches, giving to them 
more or less finish at home, we venture to predict that 
on your examination of them, and comparing them with 
copies which you may previously have made from 
coloured studies, you will be struck by the absence of 
force in your sketches, which the finished copies possess. 
This is inevitable at the beginning, for you cannot, at 
this early stage, be expected to see everything which 
exists in the scene which a more practised eye will 
discern, many of which he discerns because he knows 
beforehand they must be there. You have made the 


50 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

grass all green, whereas there were bits of brilliant light 
standing against deep shadow masses, and patches of 
red earth peeping between slender blades, which, if seen 
by you and inserted in your sketch, would have trans¬ 
formed your tame green meadow. You looked upon 
that mass of rock and saw that it was grey, and so you 
painted it grey, and put more grey upon its shadow side, 
with deeper markings still of grey for crevices and 
hollows; whereas, in reality, there were here and there 
touches of deeper richer colour, and out of the grey 
there sparkled little lights, reflected by sharp angles and 
atoms of spar. Again, you saw the tree was green and 
its branches and stems a pale brown, but did not observe 
the streaks of richer darker browns at intervals where 
the bark was broken, or where knots cast pretty shadows ; 
nor the lines of high light where the sun caught the 
edges; nor the brown shadows in the foliage masses, 
with their outer edges sometimes quite dark against the 
tender sky, or silvery grey of a distant mountain. You 
will be always looking for these things now and rapidly 
your work will lose its insipidity and ‘ greenery’ and 
become strong by the use of colours which you at first 
overlooked. 

Perhaps this is the best place to emphasize a fact or a 
law wdiich should always be in your recollection, and 
which must guide you in a general way on all oc¬ 
casions of landscape work. 

Distance always partakes of a bluish tint; green trees, 
drab houses, red roofs, grey mountains, all become 
bluish grey in the extreme distance, and so you must 
paint them. Middle distance partakes more or less of 
soft warm light, which is represented best by yellow 
ochre and Vandyke brown, and these two colours will be 
found very useful in painting extensive flat middle dis¬ 
tances, such as prevail in this country. (Not mixed at 
all times, but working the brown over the yellow to 
express lines of herbage, indentations of surface, etc.) 
Foregrounds must be full of strength; this need not 


SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 


51 


imply strong or thick colour always, because strength 
can be created by contrast. For instance, imagine a 
foreground being an uncultivated yard of a simple 
cottage. Paint the ground with yellow ochre and light 
red, broken by touches of madder brown, Vandyke 
brown and burnt sienna ; ‘ take out ’ a few small pebbles 
or stones and let there be thrown across the pathway by 
the cottage a hearthrug, or a table cover, or shawl be 
suspended near it, with prevailing blue in the pattern, 
which should be painted in with Antwerp blue on the 
pure white paper, and it will be seen how strong a fore¬ 
ground can be created by contrasting thin washes of two 
complementary or contrasting colours. 

Now, I shall try to make quite plain*to you a method 
by which you may overcome a great difficulty which 
stands in the way of all beginners in their efforts to 
sketch a landscape from nature. The difficulty consists 
in first determining how much of the landscape must be 
depicted and then the points of the foreground which 
must mark the base boundary line of 3^our picture, and 
last, but not least, the relative sizes and direction of lines 
which must be used to give correct outlines of the 
various buildings and other objects in the view selected. 
Of course, to the experienced artist these things are 
determined by the laAvs of perspective, which I am 
assuming you at present only partially apprehend; or 
even if you are acquainted with the rules theoretically 
are yet unable to easily apply them to the multitudinous 
objects in an extensive landscape. In recommending to 
you the adoption of the following simple process, I must 
not be understood to underestimate the necessity of your 
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the principles of 
perspective, and the facility of drawing all objects cor¬ 
rectly as the foundation of all art study and practice, 
but rather as a method by which you will be materially 
assisted in understanding those principles which when 
technically expressed are at first thought difficult and 
obscure, inasmuch as you will be able at any time to 


52 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

demonstrate by actual sight (even when you are not 
using your pencil) the written rules and laws. 

Example: First, supposing your intended picture is 
to be the size of 7 x 10 inches (a handy size for first 
efforts); take a piece of cardboard, say about 15 x 18, 
and cut out of its centre an aperture the exact size of 
your intended drawing, viz 7x10. Take your seat from 
where you intend to sketch the view and hold up the 
cardboard at a distance of fourteen or fifteen inches from 
your eye, taking care that it is held perfectly perpen¬ 
dicular, and at the exact height at which, with one eye 
closed, the other eye shall be opposite the centre of the 
aperture. Now, what is seen through the aperture is 
just exactly the landscape which it will be best to 
represent on your paper. The rule is, always to make 
the aperture the exact size of the intended drawing, 
whatever dimensions that may be, and to hold it from 
the eye at a distance just one and a half times the length 
of your picture, hence for a drawing ten inches long 
hold it fourteen or fifteen inches from the eye; for one 
twenty inches long hold it twenty-eight or thirty inches 
awa}^. It would make your sketch of easy accomplish¬ 
ment now if you were to adopt some easy method of 
fixing the cardboard on a stick driven into the ground 
at the exact spot indicated, so that you would at every 
glance see the positions of the respective objects to be 
drawn. The usefulness and help of this simple appli¬ 
ance can be still further increased if lines of black thread 
are passed from side to side and from end to end of the 
cardboard, dividing the aperture into several squares ; 
these perpendicular and horizontal threads will serve 
not only to indicate the relative sizes of the objects at 
various distances, but will enable you to discern the 
degree of obliquity of the lines of all objects as they 
recede from or approach the foreground, thus presenting 
a very forcible illustration of the laws of Imear perspective. 

In drawing all objects presenting distinct and definite 
outline, let your pencil sketch be clear, sharp and clean 7 


SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 


53 


do not attempt to shade with the pencil, as it would 
seriously interfere with the colour. In applying the 
colour—particularly the foreground colours—remember 
the tint will dry lighter than it appears when wet, and 
in applying contrasting tints against or in juxtaposition 
to each other, which is chiefly necessary in the fore¬ 
ground to give force or strength, take care the first is 
dry before approaching it with the second. Observe— 

1. That the darkest lines and touches must be used 
for objects in the foreground and that they diminish in 
force as they recede from the eye. 

2. That shadows are darkest at the point next to the 
object throwing the shadow. 

3. That the picture having strong masses of shadow 
is much more charming and effective than one with weak 
or scant shadows, hence a sketch taken at early morn¬ 
ing or in the afternoon is more satisfactory than one 
taken about mid-day. 

4. That distances almost invariably partake of a 
bluish or bluish-grey tone, which must be distinctly 
preserved in 3'our colour, and 

5. That foreground objects must be represented by 
much stronger tints than are at first generally conceded 
to be necessary. 

To illustrate and enforce this rule : First look at the 
extreme distance of a landscape from a point where 
there are no obstructing lines or colour objects, and the 
positive colours of objects in that distance will seem to be 
appreciable; then move to a spot where you can view 
the same distance between say two near trees or branches 
of trees and you will be struck by the absence of what 
appeared to be positive colour in those distant objects; 
they will be, by contrast with the strong greens or 
browns of the near trees, reduced to a hazy bluish-grey. 
It is by a careful recognition of this principle that very 
effective and characteristic sketches can be rapidly pro¬ 
duced; the distances being broadly washed in with 
tender tints of bluish or neutral greys and the foreground 
objects treated with strong local colouring. 


54 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

As it is inconvenient to attempt anything like ‘ finish ’ 
to work out of doors, requiring as it does ‘washing,’ 
sponging, etc., which can only be done with comfort in 
the studio, or under home conditions, practise the 
habit of taking free notes and memoranda, both with 
pencil and colour. Indicate certain spaces or objects in 
your drawing by a letter or numeral, and against a cor¬ 
responding letter or numeral make notes of the appear¬ 
ance or colour required. This habit while enabling you 
to finish your sketch, or to reproduce it at home under ' 
easy conditions with truthfulness, will serve the still 
more valuable purpose of educating you to a keen per¬ 
ception of colour and effect, and of emphasizing the 
beauties which nature is ever revealing to her lovers. 

An important remark may be made here which will be 
very readily understood by most of my readers, and 
which will enable them to determine at times which of 
the several ‘ combinations ’ of colours they should select 
for certain specific purposes, (see Table of Combinations.) 
Imitation of nature is to be considered relatively; it must 
always have reference to the colours or tints which sur¬ 
round it. This will depend, of course, upon the key in 
which the picture is pitched —precisely as in music. For 
instance, it may be pitched in a brilliant key of light 
and colour, when all the colours used will be of that 
character; or it may be desirable to execute it in low or 
half tones, in which, of course, its truthfulness would 
depend on the relative values of all its parts. 

This particular quality, or character, is one more of 
natural consequence than of educational acquirement. 

It marks the temperament and sympathies of the artist 
frequently, and even distinguishes at times the nation¬ 
ality and sections of various schools. Tet me urge you 
to follow in this the dictates of your natural impulses, 
and not to do violence to your inclinations by adopting 
the style or feeling of any individual artist, however 
much it may be admired or lauded. With diligent 
practice for a few months you will discover your artistic 


sketching from nature. 


55 


inclinations and sympathies, and if you would attain to 
your highest possibilities in art you will be true and 
devoted to these natural leanings. It may be that the 
smiles of open valleys, bathed in sunniness, may move 
you to most loving work, or perhaps your nature has 
closer affinity to the shadows of great mountains and 
the solemn isolation of crag and canon; or you may 
linger longest by the deep-toned surges of the awful sea; 
wherever your silent longings most quickly suggest 
your pencil, there linger at your work. 

It is by scrupulously regarding this sentimental in¬ 
junction, or rather this injunction of sentiment , that you 
will most readily acquire the power of producing one of 
the highest, if not the highest, qualities of a picture, viz: 

UNITY'OF EFFECT. 

Without unity of effect every other quality is next to 
worthless. It is this quality which unites and makes 
valuable all the others; it is this which gives character 
and impression to the whole. 

In the second part of this handbook, ‘ Helpful Hints 
for Viewing Nature and Art,’ I have elaborated this 
meaning in reference to sentiment, for ‘ unity of effect ’ 
is really the sentiment, or that which conveys the senti¬ 
ment of the picture. For illustration : Let us suppose 
you are painting a rural roadside cottage scene, with 
creeping rose bush or clinging honeysuckle, throwing a 
dappled shadow under the verandah roof, and green 
grasses throwing into brilliant beauty the crimson, pink 
and scarlet clusters of geraniums and roses against 
which they stand; your sentiment would be that of Home , 
the peaceful dwelling place of loving hearts, where 
alike the glory of silvery old age or the golden shimmer 
of children’s tresses are in keeping. It would be incon¬ 
gruous here to overshadow that shrine of human hearts 
by any cloud, or even to modify the dancing sunlight of 
a perfect day by a single touch. It would be incon¬ 
gruous to introduce a figure draped in the stiff proprieties 


56 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

of the city’s fashion, but to intensify the sweet sentiment 
of Home you place a cozy reclining chair upon the shaded 
porch, or amid the emerald leafage of the little garden 
plot, and perhaps a dear old ‘ Granny ’ in it; or you 
hang a bird cage at the open doorway, to suggest the 
-songster’s music, or compose a group of happy children 
at their play. 

Again, supposing your subject is a broad expanse of 
solitude, bounded by the jagged precipices of the ever¬ 
lasting hills, moving you to awe by its wild desolation 
and its awful silence; then how much more in keeping 
would it be to portray a sky of solemn cloud effects ‘ 
casting their shadows on the extensive plain, than to 
give one of azure blue or of glowing colour. Every 
scene in nature has its sentiment, and should be repre¬ 
sented by appropriate incidents and accessories. Your 
duty will be to discover them, and I confidently promise 
you that in proportion to your endeavor will be your 
success in the poetry of Art and your participation in 
.an untold enjoyment. 


PART II. 


Helpful Hints for Viewing 
Nsture md Rrt. 





* 


PIRT II. 


HELPFUL HINTS FOR VIEWING NATURE AND 

ART. 


The study of Nature and Art is so full of pure and 
unalloyed enjoyment, so wrapped about and intertwined 
with what is most enchanting to the eye and heart of 
man—touching by mystic charm of light and form and 
colour the higher sentiments—that it must at least be 
interesting to all, but it is my endeavour here to make it 
as practical as possible, so that those who may desire to 
tread in the pathway, and to listen to the message of the 
Great Spirit of Beauty in the world, may be helped in 
their devotion and encouraged in their practice. 

It is interesting to note the rapid development in these 
far western homes of those things which mark the 
highest standard of culture and refinement in the older 
cities of the east and in Europe. In no country and in 
no age of the world’s history has there ever been exhi¬ 
bited such a quick cultivation of literature, music and 
art among new and mixed and busy colonists as this 
State of California reveals, and it should be its happiest 
and most delightful feature that with the natural haste 
to grow rich its people should laudably desire to sur¬ 
round themselves in their homes with the beautiful and 
artistic, without which riches are valueless indeed. 

Now there is nothing which so surely indicates the 
measure of a people’s advancement in the more culti¬ 
vated phases of civilization and refinement as the home, 
just as there is nothing which yields so much pleasure 
and actual enjoyment to its possessor. 





6o 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


The home in which books, pictures and music are 
considered the most essential embellishments must nec¬ 
essarily hold in closer affection, and foster in nobler 
instincts, the growing sons and daughters of the house¬ 
hold, than the home whose glory is only decorative 
tinsel and showy furniture. There are homes in every 
western city, of course, in which such things are found, 
but it must be confessed they are much rarer than the 
size and condition of our cities warrant one to expect, 
and in multitudes of cases the lavish expenditure exhibi¬ 
ted in the showy decorations of mantels, carpets, uphol¬ 
stery, etc., is a bitter rebuke to their owners for the 
total absence of literature and pictures. Such a house 
is like a pretty idiot. It is not however the writer’s 
intention to discuss the matters of artistic decoration 
and intellectual appointments of a home, but rather to 
direct attention to some of the silent revelations of 
beauty which are so constantly before us, and which are 
so eminently qualified to educate a discerning mind into 
just and enjoyable judgment and appreciation of things 
beautiful both in nature and art. 

There is nothing so conducive to true judgment in 
matters of pictorial art as the practice of watching the 
phases and moods of nature, whether of atmosphere 
upon the landscape, or of passion upon the human face 
and figure; an eye trained to such watchfulness will 
soon discover both the meaning and the faults of pictures 
which the ordinar} r beholder of nature’s surface will be 
unable to discern, and will revel in enjoyments to which 
the other is necessarily a .stranger. 

Tet me recall to your mind’s eye a very common effect 
in this country after the rains, when the parched brown 
of the foothills responds to the magic touch of the rain¬ 
drops in a burst of rapturous colour. If you have not 
stood exactly where I will take you for a moment, you 
have stood before similar effects many times each winter. 

A few days after my arrival in Tos Angeles, in Novem¬ 
ber, 1887, and just as soon as I was miraculously deliv- 


HELPFUL, HINTS. 


6l 

ered from the tender mercies of a host of Philistines, 
called real estate men, I found myself one Sunday morn¬ 
ing strolling city-ward on Washington street, far out 
beyond the Rosedale Cemetery. It was after the first 
rains, and I felt full of the delicious vitality and charm 
which the first rains give. 

Sauntering off the road to peruse an interesting an¬ 
nouncement which offered a big bargain to the first man 
who came quick enough with a deposit, I came to the 
edge of a pool, a lodgement of the rain in a hollow, a 
pool just sixteen yards across, and in it, or upon it, was 
a vision of loveliness that I shall never forget. I have 
lingered by the silvery mirrors of other lands, and have 
haunted the richest bits of dear old England’s lakes and 
streams—the inspiration of poets and the paradise of 
artists—but except on one occasion, when riding past 
the garden of the poet Wordsworth, I saw the glory of 
a most perfect reflex in Rydal Water, I had never seen 
anything surpassing this. Such a vision of pure and 
tender colour in water, with such perfect definition of 
detail it is impossible to describe, and until you take an 
opportunity of looking into that, or a similar pool, with 
your face city-ward, you cannot realize the enchantment. 

The undefined and inexpressible thrill of the artist as 
he looks out upon the rolling foothills, in their vernal 
beauty, or upon the mountains melting in the golden glory 
of our common sunsets, is as much above the pleasure of 
the millionaire, as he counts his gold, as is the reality of 
the rippling laughter of your little child at play to the 
forced guffaw of a salaried clown. It is a pleasure 
which sweetens life in poverty, lightens life in care, and 
although art is not religion, or a substitute for religion, 
yet it is religion’s noblest and most spiritual handmaid; 
inasmuch as she interprets to multitudes of men who 
are too blind to see, or too indifferent, the wonderful 
revelations of sea, and sky, and land; catching the 
sweet whisperings of the tender leaflets, and the music 
of the sea wave on the beach; translating the awful 


62 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


splendour of the sky at eventide, when piled up clouds 
rise above the mountain tops—both cloud and mountain 
capped and fringed with the radiance of tinted light; or 
when in the lower sky great plains of molten silver seem 
to tremble in dazzling brilliancy, until the flashing— 
throbbing—twinkling rose, and purple, and amythest 
are blended into the pearly greys and tender sea greens 
of the sun’s final whispered ‘good-night.’ 

At my feet was the ethereal blue of a rapturous sky, 
and against it was the spotless snow of Old Baldy’s 
crown, glistening under the sheen of the water like a 
celestial thing. The pearly grey shadows of the mon¬ 
arch beneath it came out with the sharpness and clear¬ 
ness of a touch of a pencil, while all the great range 
from Garvanza to Rialto was as clear and defined as the 
stones in the foreground. The city came next, its turrets 
and towers clear-cut against the grey of the mountains; 
its red-painted roofs and the interspersed foliage looking 
as bright as the blush of a maiden. Then, fringing the 
face of the city-, were line upon line of pepper and tall 
eucalyptus, interspersed with the gables and chimneys 
and windmills which stretch ’twixt Washington Gardens 
and Rosedale ; then, somebody’s tomb, glistening white in 
the sunlight, surrounded by others less pompous, and at 
the far edge of the mirror, the tender sweet shoots of new 
herbage and grasses reflected their modest new beauty, 
and when I looked up, and glanced at the vision reflected, 
I fell into wondrous amazement, and knew not which 
most to admire—the substance or only the shadow. 

And even the solemn pleasures of the night season she 
interprets, when day dreams of imaginary wrong are 
dispelled by the host of stars which in their silent twink¬ 
lings remind us of the hope in the sublime allegory, ‘ As 
one star differeth from another star in glory.’ 

It is my humble delightful province to sit always at 
the feet of the Great Master in the world’s landscape 
studio, and my duty in this paper is to reveal something 
of the glory and the teaching of that phase of art alone. 


HELPFUL HINTS. 


6 3 


Do not think that I place this branch of art above all 
others, or that I insufficiently esteem the rest. One 
artist will linger most about the modest lilies of the 
field, and make them repeat the sweetest message of the 
universe, ‘Consider the lilies,’ etc. Another will trans¬ 
late the charm of a pretty waking child at sunrise and, 
posing the little one before a world, will repeat again the 
everlasting utterance, ‘For of such is the kingdom’; 
while another must needs look out upon the general face 
of nature, remembering that first grand verdict, ‘He 
saw that it was good.’ So each in his special sphere 
shall be opening blind ej^es, touching silent chords, and 
leading the multitude into the inner courts of the great 
temple of Beauty. 

I deem it advisable at once to define what Landscape 
Art really is, that is, what the art of landscape painting 
really means, and some readers may be unprepared to 
hear that it is not a mere reproduction of a given area 
of the surface of nature; it is not merely a copy of a 
given scene or view, however faithfully and truty it may 
be reproduced ; if it were that only it could not claim 
superiority over the mechanical art of the photographer. 
It is more than an accurate transcript of nature’s surface ; 
it is not compassed or expressed by the cranky methods 
of pre-Raffaellites or Impressionists (although the latter 
school is infinitely nearer the truth than the former) but 
it is the translation into colour of the artist’s emotions 
as they are evoked by the influence of the scene , as the 
great spirits of light, and wind, and moisture play upon 
it. What wizards of enchantment these are ! Let but 
a solitary beam of morning’s silvery light fall upon a 
green rush by the grey water’s edge and the true artist 
catches the inspiration, and with it unfolds a picture of 
nature’s harmony in silver and greys, which captivates 
a multitude. Wind! Let but a cool breath sweep up 
from the sea at hot noontide, making the dry ripe corn 
rustle like the leaves of a forest in an Eastern October, 
and the neglected dead leaves of your eucalyptus to 


64 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

whirl in crisp music, as in the joy of a glad resurrection, 
and the artist will need no further incentive to touch 
into lovable beauty of action the flowers and grasses 
and leaves of a commonplace ‘lot.’ And then, the 
Moisture! What an immeasurable—unutterable thing to 
the artist! How insignificant is everything else in com¬ 
parison ! Without it the world could be done in chalk, 
but not in colour. 

An artist practising landscape painting without a 
poetic appreciation of the effect of moisture ! What a 
parody ! How pitiable ! But the artist looking out 
upon the jagged and rugged fringe of the Sierras yonder 
sees moisture woven into tender gossamer garments 
about their feet, and into thinnest veils of floating mists, 
and his translation of that mountain view is not a correct 
outline of its altitude and features only, or chiefly, but 
is a revelation of the charm of its beauty, as his keen 
perception saw moving light, and soft cloud shadows, 
and filmy fleecy things of sky and sea plaj^ hide and 
seek among the crevices and hollows of the great moun¬ 
tain’s side. It is not the subject of a picture which 
charms and captivates most, but its treatment. A little 
rivulet caught babbling among the nodding grasses and 
blushing violets of its shady bed, and dropping with 
only whisperings of its sweet music o’er a common stone, 
can be made by one who sees and feels the thing, and 
who knows that in his palette box he has a chord respon¬ 
sive to every sweet utterance of the rippling rill and to 
every enchantment of its flower and moss-strewn path¬ 
way—a picture worthy of a nation’s honour; while he 
who sees only the material , and has not realized the truth 
that in landscape art a shadow is more important than 
the substance, and a poem is more worthy than mechani¬ 
cal exactitude, may paint a cataract upon a mile of 
canvas, yet fail to touch a single chord or sentiment of 
human hearts. 

Just as the temperament, passions and circumstances, 
within and without a man, play upon his features, so do 


HELPFUL HINTS. 


65 


atmosphere and its conditions play upon the face of 
nature, and no true portrait painter would consider a 
measured outline, with careful interlineation of observant 
marks and shadows of a sitter, the highest art. His art 
enables him to breathe the spirit of his subject on the 
canvas, and the same principle is good in landscape to 
an extent far beyond popular appreciation, and not only 
can no student ever take a step toward success in art 
who does not at the commencement of his study accept 
and understand this principle, but no person can ever 
become a judge of any picture—or even ever acquire the 
faculty of enjoying a good picture to the fullest extent— 
without recognising this principle, and it is in the ex¬ 
pression of this poetic element of nature in landscape 
that water colour excels. It is not difficult to under¬ 
stand that a medium so delicate and pure in character 
should be found the best adapted to express the tenderer 
and more subtle effects of atmosphere and colour, while 
at the same time its wonderful transparency gives it a 
capacity of any required strength and force. 

Of course, all accept the above proposition in the 
matter of violent agitations in nature, such as storms, 
both on sea and land, and in such plain variations of 
effect as morning and evening; but I desire to make 
plain to you far subtler things, and for the purpose (in 
the absence of actual illustrations ) must rety on descrip¬ 
tion. Some years ago, four artists of my acquaintance 
—all good landscapists, three of them men of consider¬ 
able reputation—were together in a very popular hunt¬ 
ing ground of men of the brush. At a turn of the road 
they came upon a simple cottage, with barn, stable and 
other simple outbuildings, which appealed to them all as 
a good foreground subject, and, true to the sudden 
instinct, they pitched their sketching stools on a bit of 
rising ground and each deciding on his composition 
found themselves in a few minutes removed from each 
other only a few yards, perhaps the two furthest from 
each other only fifteen yards. At the next annual 


66 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


exhibition of the Water Colour Society the four pictures 
were hung in the same room, and, although they attracted 
considerable attention because of their merit, they were 
only recognized as being transcripts of the same location 
by a few of the public, because each artist had revealed 
in colour what he felt in the subject most, although he 
had not in the slightest degree falsified the subject. 
The cottage was on the fringe of a corn field, which 
sloped toward the west, and at that western boundary 
was the shadowed bed of a little stream from which on 
the opposite side rose abruptly a hillock, fern-covered 
and with jutting bits of grey granite. One artist caught 
the play of light upon the golden waving corn, and 
wove upon his canvas a harmony of rich yellows with 
telling chords of grey and purplisli-olive in the shadowed 
distance, using the front of the cottage only to strengthen 
the composition. Another was struck most by the 
mysterious shadows in that hollow beyond the field, and 
he subtly worked out their sympathetic utterances, using 
the corn only as a pathway for the eye up to and into 
the soft hollows of the thick brush and sleeping willows. 
The third caught the glinting sunlight on the little 
window panes; the half opened lattices with white 
blinds telling wonderfully against the dark shadows of 
the room; the gate, half open, seemed really to swing 
upon its hinges; a straggling bit of creeping ivy which 
grew over the gable chimney top caught the bright sun¬ 
light, and a few touches of orange light upon its vivid 
greenness made it almost move to the soft wind—the 
whole emphasized by a deep shadow across the rough 
yard. He produced only the bright country homestead— 
the important elements of the other works being here 
treated very simply and subserviently. The fourth 
artist sat the lowest , and he was moved most by the 
tender outlines of the semi-distant hillock, with its 
broken crevices against a sky trembling in all the beauty 
of opalescent light; making the cottage a strong fore¬ 
ground, the corn field became partially blotted from his 


HELPFUL, HINTS. 


67 


view; lie united his strong foreground to the tender 
distance by an imaginary narrow pathway through the 
corn (the only liberty taken with the truth of the subject 
by the whole four men) and his composition became a 
totally different thing from the other three. The pictures 
naturally suggested such characteristic titles as— 

‘The Poetry of Motion.’ 

‘There is no place like Home.’ 

‘ A Golden Pathway.’ (You see he gave most prom¬ 
inence to his bit of idealization, }^et led the beholder to 
the point of distance which was his inspiration.) 

‘ The soft and silent shadows lure to love and dreams.’ 

Now, there is no desire in the heart of a young art 
student greater or more earnest than that of being able 
to sketch from nature. There is a fascination in the 
thought of being able to put on paper or canvas a 
pictorial representation of the things we see, particularly 
of the scenes which through the eye fill us with pleasure 
and admiration ; yet how few are there among those who 
learn the principles of drawing and perspective, and who 
learn to paint from copies with more or less degree of 
excellence, who are able to sketch and colour the land¬ 
scape which they most admire, or any part of its appeal¬ 
ing beauty, and it would be amusing, if it were not so 
painful, to see the young beginner engage on his first 
and even his twentieth essay. 

His first great difficulty is to decide where to begin— 
how much to put in, and after an almost sickening wan¬ 
dering from point to point in search of something that 
he cannot define, he either gives the matter up and con¬ 
soles himself with the thought that it is not just the 
scene after all to make a picture of, or that his paper is 
not quite large enough to embrace the view he selected, 
or that the time of day is not favorable to begin, or that 
he will be able to select a more suitable and an easier 
subject, he folds up his materials and awaits another 
opportunity. He knows all about the base line, the 
horizontal line, the point of sight, the vanishing point, 


68 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


and the rest of it, but they all get so mixed lip in his 
contemplation of the multitude of things he sees in that 
landscape that his ambitious spirit quails, and his artistic 
capacity seems smaller than he thought it to be. Many 
times the world has had to lose an artist because such 
eager loving efforts have not been helped by a word of 
true and practical suggestion. It is not because that 
young beginner does not know the rules which should 
guide him in deciding where and how to begin his 
sketch, but he does not know how to apply them. Per¬ 
haps the simple illustration given under ‘Sketching 
from Nature’ may be useful to such persons in the 
future, and serve to make their study of perspective, 
etc., plainer and easier. 

In helping your child to the practice of a noble char¬ 
acter you are not incessantly reiterating the decalogue, or 
intoning a creed, but by a sweeter subtler process show 
him the beauty and simplicity of nobility, honour and 
truth; so to that eager trembling aspirant to artistic 
fame there is a more practical method of guidance and 
help than by the eternal insistance upon scientific law, 
yet which must, of course, be in accord with and illus¬ 
trative of that severe law of linear perspective, which 
must ultimately become his easy, friendly, infallible 
guide. 

Now, a few words of advice as to how and where and 
whezi to look for revelations of beauty and of tender 
shadowings as from out of the invisible. In the constant 
sunshine of these western skies it is specially needful to 
watch for the occasions of atmospheric changes, for they 
are fewer and more fleeting than in more humid climes. 
Each day presents the sublime panorama of mountain 
peaks and rolling foothills and valleys garnished with 
the luscious fruitage of a second Eden; but to-day, 
yesterday and to-morrow the unwatchful ones will see 
only the same face—the same glory—while he who is 
wise enough to look will see that face move and radiate 
with passion and pathos, smiles and tears. The sea fog 


HELPFUL, HINTS. 


69 


comes up at eventide and with silent finger touches in 
places the fringes of palm and the gum trees, and trickles 
its moisture into the folds of the corn stalks; then up in 
the morning betimes and looking out eastward see Earth 
throwing kisses to a silvery sunrise, or from the pearly 
shadows of a canon see that solemn sea fog rise up in 
sparkling cloudlets, like incense ascending to wreath 
itself about the bright Shekinah. Or if, at eventide, 
before the sun lies down upon the glittering liquid couch 
of 3 r on Pacific, you have perceived a fog dispersed out 
sea-ward, or have discerned some broken clouds in the 
north and north-western sky, then look for the sure 
transformation that will follow, when colour rampant 
will sometimes overawe the soul, at other times will 
whisper cadences of heavenly lullabies to troubled minds. 

But not only at sweet smiling morn, or at the poetic 
time of evening’s blushes shall the watcher be rewarded. 
No! No! At times there is a sleepy dreamy haze 
about the mountain crests and chasms which must be 
reproduced on canvas by greys of poetic tenderness and 
purity ; at other times they cloth themselves in deep- 
toned vapourings of blue, or bluish purples, or neutral 
bluishness, and seem to stand so near that you can 
fancy you hear their echoes of your voice; while here, 
by the silvery beach, the artist looks not upon an eternal 
monotony of tumbling waters, but ever and anon he 
catches in the liquid mass a passage of unusual colour, 
a deepened shadow in the hollow of a swell, an opal¬ 
escent sparkle of a bit of wind-swept foam, an emerald 
green behind the curve of a breaking wave, and in the 
receding snowy little foamlets at his feet he sees a frolic 
and hears a laughter like the charm of little children at 
their play. 

The world is very beautiful. To all of us the Great 
Spirit of Beauty passes at times very near and we see 
and feel the sweep of her ethereal garments ; but to those 
only who look for the vision, and who seek to understand 
her message, does she vouchsafe her greatest, her sweet- 


70 


A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 


est witchery and revealment. In all ages—everywhere 
—the love and cultivation of art has sweetened and 
uplifted the generations of men; but it was reserved for 
the nineteenth century to prove—and proved it has— 
that landscape art reveals most of the glory of God, and 
has the noblest mission in the interpretation of the in¬ 
finite message of creation. 

These are no common platitudes; ask the youngest 
student of the art if his first lessons have not opened his 
eyes to see daily visions to which he was blind before, 
and to receive pleasures from the perusal of the world’s 
great poet painters of which he had not conceived the 
possibility. 

Whether you cultivate the art and pow r er of making 
pictorial memoranda of the things you see and love or 
not, do this at least—try to discern the variety of hue 
and colour of light, half lights and poetic shadows in 
which the world is clad; wait not for the rampant glory 
of a crimson sunset, or the quiet beauty of a new crea¬ 
tion, as in the morning (each morning) God speaks a 
new day, ‘Let there be light!' but from your cottage 
porch see revelry of silent shadows as the mid-day 
breeze sweeps in among your garden trees, and watch 
the countless changes of colour in the restless radiance 
of the breaking waves. See how dancing sunlight 
blots out the green upon your corn leaves and makes 
them glitter with the burnished whiteness of a Damascus 
blade, and the thick stalks of the dead mustard brush 
glitter mid its branch tracery, like the sheen of silver 
rods. Be not content to count the golden fruitage of 
your orange trees, nor rest quite satisfied with the dis¬ 
cernment of their ripening beaut} 7 , but look into the 
deep dark shadows of the leafy hollows, and see how 
wondrously the juicy greens are multiplied by the 
reflected lights. Evetywhere try to discern the half 
hidden passages of beauty and listen ever to the whis¬ 
perings of the great Teacher’s message, so shall your 
hearts throb with a purer joy, your understandings be 


HELPFUL, HINTS. 


71 


quickened, your anticipations be intensified of the glory 
which ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.’ 

And now, a final word directly upon the method of 
viewing Art. (Of course, the scope of my remarks is 
limited in this special handbook to landscape art, or that 
branch particularly.) 

I repeat that it is a degredation of the conception of 
art to hold that the essence of art is imitation. It is the 
function of the artist to create. It is the representation 
of the ideal under the forms of the actual; of the 
spiritual within the material. This must be acknowl¬ 
edged and felt by every one who would see the artist’s 
meaning in his work. 

In first looking at a picture, view it as a whole , and 
from a distance of several times its own length, where 
possible. You may afterwards look into it minutely, 
for purposes of criticism or of education, but first try to 
discern the main character of the picture. It is true 
you may not discover any distinctive character in it, for 
the reason that it has none, but let us suppose that it 
has , that it is the work of a competent and conscientious 
poet of colour, and that in it there lurks a sentiment of 
that poet’s soul. And let me here ask you to assent to 
this philosophy without reserve and to enforce your 
assent by historic proof. In a man’s works we can 
recognize the man. Take, for instance, such examples 
as Fra Angelico, who painted angel faces and sweet 
forms of perfect purity in such a way as to perpetuate 
their chaste dreams through generations of men, because 
he lived a life of transparent simplicity and truth ; while 
Salvator Rosa painted strong canvases of revolting 
ghastliness and depression, because he was defiled by 
malignant passion, and lived a boisterous revel life with 
the bandits and brigands of Abruzzi. 

This spirit and life of the man in his work is what 
should be seen, and the capacity for such discernment 
should be first eagerly cultivated; by this means the 
colour utterances of their respective canvases will have 


72 A GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 

special meanings, and their messages will, by their 
poetry and music, convey sweet understanding. The 
religious aim and perfect artistic power of Giovanni 
Bellini; the solemn and severe spirit of Michael Angelo ; 
the sweet joyousness of Raffaelle; the luxurious high- 
toned temperament of Rubens, and the marvelous com¬ 
prehensiveness of the culture of Sir Frederick Leighton 
are the first things exhibited to connoisseurs by their 
respective works. 

It may be urged that opportunities for the study of 
such high examples are few and distant; let this be 
granted, yet the principle remains, and in your oppor¬ 
tunities there shall be found examples of spirit and life 
behind paint and manner, and a ‘still small voice’ of 
enchanting solace and enjoyment shall speak to you 
from out the canvases of many neglected geniuses. 

It will be well always to remember that it is the pre¬ 
eminent duty and aim of all true artists to reveal to men 
the half hidden beauty and glory of the universe; but 
the multitude too often disdains their efforts, and denies 
their power, until they pass into the greater and sublimer 
glory of the unseen. David Cox was humbled to the 
painting ol a sign post for his daily bread, and only after 
his death could the blind host of boasted connoisseurs see 
wind and moving vapours, with wonderful expansiveness 
of feathery moorlands and mottled skies in the bits of 
rapid water colours which now they buy with heavy 
cheques; and Millet, from his modest cottage, did noble 
work and preached to France for years, under the dis¬ 
piriting silence and contempt of his country, the doctrine 
of the true intrinsic grandeur of manhood and the 
sanctity of toil, but when the ‘silver cord was loosed’ 
and the deft fingers silent, the mob of educated art 
patrons flung useless roses on his tomb, and vouchsafed 
their vulgar honour of his worth by giving a fortune for 
‘The Angelus’ to a stranger who probably had never 
contributed a cent to the great artist’s toil. 

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